OL98: (CW) Tracking the Delivery and Reading of E-mail Messages

Microsoft Outlook 98 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 setting of options in Outlook, and the proper handling of the incoming notification messages. This article describes the conditions and requirements for proper operation of Outlook's message tracking feature.

To use the complete functionality of the receipt tracking feature 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. However, these features may only work for messages that are sent within the local area network. Internet-bound messages may not support the full tracking features.

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

1. Open a new mail message.
2. Click the Options tab, and click to select the desired Tracking options.

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

1. On the Tools menu, click Options and on the Preferences tab click E- Mail Options.
2. Click Tracking Options and click to select 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.

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 example 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 unless moved by the option, "In folders other than the Inbox, save replies with original message."
• 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.

To Set Automatic Processing Options

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, on the Preferences tab click E-Mail options.
2. Click Advanced E-Mail Options and click to select 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.

For more information on message tracking, please see the following article(s)in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: