XCLN: Amalgamated Read/Delivery Receipts (136787)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange Client 4.0
  • Microsoft Exchange Client 5.0
  • Microsoft Exchange Windows NT client 4.0
  • Microsoft Exchange Windows NT client 5.0

This article was previously published under Q136787

SUMMARY

The ability to receive only one Read/Delivery status report for a message sent to a distribution list or a number of users, instead of a lot of individual Read/Delivery receipts, is not available in Microsoft Exchange Server.

This article describes a useful workaround to allow Microsoft Exchange users to better manage all the receipts received in response to a message.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the Inbox Assistant available in the Microsoft Exchange Windows clients to automatically move all Read/Delivery Receipts into a folder. You can then create a custom view to allow all the receipts received in response to a particular message to be grouped together.

The following steps describe how this can be done:
  1. Create a folder called Receipts.
  2. On the Tools Menu, choose Inbox Assistant to bring up the Inbox Assistant dialog box.
  3. Click the Add Rule button. This should bring up the Edit Rule dialog box.
  4. Click the Advanced button, to bring up the Advanced dialog box.
  5. Click the Forms button. The Select Forms dialog box should appear.
  6. Using the drop-down list box, select Application Forms.
  7. Scroll down and select "Standard report form." Click Add.
  8. Click Close to close the Select Forms dialog box.
  9. Click OK to close the Advanced dialog box.
  10. In the Edit Rule dialog, select the Move To option. Click the Folders button that corresponds to the Move To option. In the Move Message To dialog box, select the Receipts folder you created in step 1. Click OK to close the Move Message To dialog box.
  11. Click OK to close the Edit Rule dialog box.

    You should now see a rule added to the list of Inbox Assistant rules. The above steps have created a rule that moves all messages with the Standard Report Form into a Receipts folder.
  12. Close the Inbox Assistant dialog box. In the main client window, select the Receipts folder.
  13. On the View menu, click Define Views. This should bring up the Define Views dialog box. Select the Folder Views option. This will cause the view being defined to be available only in the currently selected folder. If you want to use this view in other folders, select Personal Views.
  14. Click New.
  15. Type "Group by Conversation View" as the View Name.
  16. Click the Columns button. In the Columns dialog box, select Conversation Topic from the Available Columns list, and click Add. Close the dialog box by clicking OK.
  17. Click the Group By button to bring up the Group By dialog box. In the "Group items by" list box, select Conversation Topic. This will cause all the messages in the folder to be displayed, grouped by Conversation Topic.
  18. In the "Then Sort items by" list box, select From. Click OK. This will cause all the messages in a group to be sorted by the Sender's name.
  19. Click the Apply button and then close the Define Views dialog box by clicking Close.
  20. Depending on whether you created the view as a Folder View or a Personal View, select Folder Views or Personal Views on the View Menu, and then choose Group by Conversation View. This will cause the information in the Receipts folder to be displayed with the selected view.
The view created will group all the receipts received in response to a particular message. Inside each group, all the messages will be sorted by the sender's name.

This view can be used to determine the following information for a particular message sent out with read and delivery receipt turned on:
  • All the users to whom the message was delivered. These are receipts from "System Administrator."

  • Users who have read the message. These are messages with "Read:" prefixed to the subject line.

  • Users who deleted the message without reading it, or moved the message to a private folder. These are receipts with "Not Read:" prefixed to the subject line.

  • If a receipt message is not received from a user, then that user has not read, deleted, or moved the original message into a private folder.

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:8/17/2005
Keywords:kbusage KB136787