3 August 2008

Don't press Send and Regret it

I'm sure we've all done it at one time -- pressed Send on an e-mail and put the wrong recipient in the To box. No matter how diligent you are, sometimes these mistakes happen. Thankfully, there is an option to Recall the message.

In Outlook 2007 this feature works much better than the 2003 version. In 2003, the recipient still gets the e-mail and has to agree to let you recall the message. They will receive a message in their Inbox that you want to recall the message, but it's up to them whether they agree or not. In Outlook 2007, you get the option to recall the message directly from the recipient's Inbox. If the recipient does not have Outlook 2007 or has already picked up the message this feature will not work.

To recall a message in Outlook 2007:

Go in the Sent message that you want to Recall. In the Message tab under Actions, you will see Other Actions in the Toolbar. Click on the arrow down and you will see the option to either Delete Unread copies of this message or Delete unread copies and replace with a new message. You should also click the box Tell me if Recall suceeds or fails for each recipient.

Regardless of whether you think you will ever need this feature, keep the instructions close at hand. The sooner you can perform the action after you press Send, the more successful you will be.

Recall is an option, but the best defence is to carefully look at the recipient name and don't press Send until you are sure.