OL97: Tracking the Delivery and Reading of E-mail Messages (166376)

SUMMARY

Microsoft Outlook 97 has the ability to track the delivery and reading of e-mail messages sent to various recipients. This feature uses notification messages sent by the recipient's e-mail system. These notification messages can be logged to the original message's tracking page.

This tracking feature depends upon the e-mail software used by the recipient, the settings in Outlook, and the proper handling of the incoming notification messages. This article describes the conditions and requirements for proper operation of the Outlook message tracking feature.

MORE INFORMATION

System Requirements

To use the complete functionality of receipt tracking the message recipient's mail server must be capable of sending these receipts. Some mail servers send no delivery or read information; others send a generic report in the form of a plain mail message. The Outlook tracking feature will not recognize these as receipt notifications so they will not be added to the message's tracking page. Microsoft Exchange Server provides full message tracking capabilities.

To Request Delivery and/or Read Notification on a Specific Message

Open a new mail message and on the Options tab, click the desired Tracking options.

To Request Delivery and/or Read Notification on All Mail Messages

On the Tools menu, click Options and on the Sending tab, click the desired Tracking options.

Processing Notification Messages

The incoming notification messages will be logged to the original message (in the Sent Items folder) on its tracking page. This logging process can either be manually or automatically initiated. For automatic processing to occur, messages may only be sorted using the Received By field. Any other operation may disturb this process.

Manual Logging of Notification Messages

A notification message will be manually logged if it is either opened or deleted. There is no way to disable logging if the notification message is manually opened or deleted. However, deletion of the notification message by an Inbox rule will not log the message.

NOTE: Deleting a large number of notification messages (for instance, from a message sent to a large alias) can be slow due to the necessity of opening the sent message for each notification.

Automatic Logging of Notification Messages

The following conditions are required for automatic processing of notification messages:

The sent message must remain in the default Sent Items folder.
The notification receipt must remain in the default Inbox.
There must be 30 to 60 seconds of idle time on your computer before the automatic processing will activate. Any keyboard or mouse movement will interrupt this idle time.

The Automatic Processing options must be selected as follows:

On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the E-mail tab, click the desired "Settings for automatic processing of mail."

When these conditions are satisfied, the incoming notification message will be automatically logged to the sent message's tracking page. After being logged it will be deleted (if that option is chosen).

Message Tracking Limitations

Only e-mail messages will be tracked. Outlook does not track Meeting Request or Task Request messages.
If the Original message is digitally encrypted, it cannot be tracked.