When you select or open a message from the Inbox view in the Email pane, the message is highlighted. I often open a message, go to an outline pane and modify an outline item, and then find myself wanting to drag the open message to the outline, but once I go to the outline pane, the message is no longer highlighted in the Inbox so I have to eyeball the list to find the right message (even though it is still open in the message pane) and then drag it into the outline.
If you could maintain some sort of highlight or indicator of the message in the Inbox that is currently being shown in the message pane, it would make this process much easier.