How to Disable single click to open email in New Outlook?

The only options I see in View-->Reading Pane are:

• Show on the right
• Show on the bottom
• Hide

It's still dumb to tie the click to open an email to reading pane options anyway; some of us don't use the reading pane.

Furthermore, I don't know a single soul who uses a single click to open anything. Double Click = Open since before Windows even used a mouse & we were all using a Mac Plus or SE with the 8" black & white screen. Someone at Microsoft needs to get his or her **** together.

I used the following approach as workaround:

1. Go to Settings >> Mail >> Layout >>
2. Under the Reading pane options, select "At the bottom"
3. Save and return back to email list window. Reading pane at the bottom half will appear.
4. Drag the Reading Pane border marker (top-right) to reduce the size of the pane to minimum possible.
5. Now the single click will not open any email. Whereas double click will open the email in new window.

Thanks! This seems to be the best workaround for the problem. Per you suggestion, I've turned the Reading Pane on for now, chosen to have it displayed in a strip at the bottom of the Outlook window, and the single clicks no longer open the email.

(FYI I had to choose this workaround today because Outlook forced me to switch to the new version just now, so I guess there's no going back to the old version anymore.)

I have the same issue. Regarding the "why would you want this different", here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Single click does not open an item in most other OS applications (Windows, OSX, Linux, etc.). Single click typically selects an item.
2. Often I single click to deselect another email so that the conversation view collapses and I can see more of my messages.
3. In addition to #2, I sometimes single click an email so I can see the conversation. This way I get a quick view of the first line of each email so that I can see the topics and quickly select the appropriate email. If an entire email opens when I single click it, it defeats the ability to quickly scan the messages in the conversation.