wrote:

thanks, do you know if this behaviour is different in Outlook 2007? I
have a hosted Exchange. My primary mailbox is cached (Cached Exchange
Mode on), and I have an additional mailbox open (online mode). When I
click on a large message in the additional mailbox (to preview it in
the Preview Pane), Outlook 2007 seems to download the text +
attachment. Example - a small message (text only) displays almost
instantly in the Preview Pane. A message with a large attachment (e.g.
3MB) (and small amount of text) takes 40 seconds to preview. I can
only speculate that the entire message is being downloaded in Outlook
2007, even though I am just previewing the text in it.

If you're using cached Exchange mode and you have the account set up to
download headers and text in the Send/Receive group, Outlook will download
the message in its entirety when viewed in the Reading Pane. Attachments
are part of the body of the message. If you download the message, you
download the attachments.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]