It’s good to concentrate with focus and it’s good to amass broad information. An email’s header has lots of the latter to offer. It includes Information about an email’s parts and path, for instance. Find out here how to view all email header lines for a message in Outlook.com.
First, a Knitting Needle and a Violin
We’ve seen Philipp Reis’s brother-in-law talk into a wooden ear on a string in a barn. This was the sending end of the Reisian telephone.
At the receiving end was a knitting needle stuck into a coil that formed the end of the string from the barn. The needle vibrated and sung to the tune of the electrical impulses sent over the stringy wire, but it was very quiet on its own. So, Reis hat put the needle on a violin, which acted as a resonating soundbox—as is its wont.
Reis listened to a violin played by a needle talking of the sun, copper, horses and cucumbers, doing his best to decipher the in part nonsensical sentences.
Now, if you want to decipher better what comes to your desk and palm by way of email messages, here are the knitting needle and violin corpus for Outlook on the web:
How to Access All Email Header Lines in Outlook.com
Time needed: 2 minutes
To see, analyze and copy all email header lines for an email in Outlook.com (Outlook on the web):
- Open the message for which you want to access the full header.
Pre- or full view: You can open the email either in the reading pane or in its own full display (or tab).
- Click the More actions three dots menu button in the message’s header.
- Select View | View Message Source (or View | View Message Details) from the menu that has appeared.
- Find the full email headers starting from the top in the Message source window.
Till here: The header ends with the first empty line.
- Click Close to close source display.
How to Access All Email Header Lines in Outlook.com: FAQ
Can I see message headers without opening the email itself?
Yes.
To see just the headers (as well as the rest of the message source) for an email in Outlook.com without displaying the message itself:
- With the preview pane disabled in Outlook.com, click on the message for which you want to access all headers with the right mouse button.
- Select View | View message source from the context menu that has appeared.
- Examine the header lines under Message source.
Is there a keyboard shortcut for viewing headers?
No.
Outlook on the web does not include keyboard shortcuts for opening the More actions menu or bringing up the message source display.
Can I access full message headers in the mobile version of Outlook.com?
No.
The mobile version of Outlook.com does not offer access to the message source or full headers.
(How to access all email header lines in Outlook.com tested in a desktop browser; first published August 2023, last updated July 2024)