OL97: Mail Message Icon Does Not Change After Reading

In Microsoft Outlook 97, after you read an incoming message, the icon may not change from a closed envelope to an open envelope.

Messages arriving over the Internet do not have the default message class necessary to control the icon display. The Outlook default message class is IPM.Note. Messages received through the Internet Mail transport have a message class of something like IPM.Note.RFC822.MIME.

NOTE: The formatting of the closed message display should change from bold to normal text after you have read it, regardless of its class.

This problem occurs with the "Icon" field. You can add the "read" field to your view and you will see an envelope icon that will change after the Internet message opens.

To add the "Read" field to your view:

1. From the Outlook Inbox, click Show Fields on the View menu.
2. In the "Show Fields" dialog box, under "Select available fields from," click "All Mail fields."
3. Under "Available Fields," click to select "Read."
4. Click Add to add the "Read" field to your view.
5. Click OK.

NOTE: You can remove the "Icon" field if desired by clicking and dragging it off the header row. However, the "Read" field will not display special icons such as Read Receipts, and so on.

To view the message class of an e-mail message, do the following:

1. From the Outlook Inbox, click Show Fields on the View menu.
2. In the "Show Fields" dialog box, under "Select available fields from," click "All Mail fields."
3. Under "Available Fields," click to select "Message Class."
4. Click Add to add the "Message Class" field to your view.
5. Click OK.

In the newly added field, you should see the class of each message.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Outlook 97. The problem is corrected in the Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1). For more information on this subject, please see the following article(s)in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: