How to Modify an SMTP E-Mail Address by Using Recipient Policies

This article describes how to modify recipient policies in Exchange 2003 to determine how a user's e-mail address is generated. When you use the procedure that is described in this article to modify a recipient policy, you can define specific settings that allow you to meet the naming conventions that are required for your organization.

By default, Exchange 2003 has one recipient policy that is named "Default Policy.” Default Policy generates Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail addresses in the following format, where user_name is the Exchange alias property of the user, and domain_name is the Microsoft Active Directory directory service domain name: Note Do not modify Default Policy if you want to use the replacement strings that the following procedure describes to generate your SMTP address. If you want to use replacement strings, you have to create a new recipient policy. If you try to modify Default Policy, you may experience problems if Default Policy is based on attributes such as given name or surname. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To modify a recipient policy:

1. Start the Exchange System Manager. To do this, click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click Exchange System Manager.
2. Double-click Organization, double-click Recipients, and then click Recipient Policies.
3. Double-click the policy that you want to change.
4. Click the E-Mail Addresses tab, and then edit the appropriate SMTP Generation rule by using any of the following replacement strings:
   • %s : Surname (last name)
   • %g : Given name (first name)
   • %i : Middle initial
   • %d : Display name
   • %m : Exchange 2003 alias
   • %rxy : Replace all subsequent characters x with character y in username. If x = y, the character will be deleted.
   Notes
   • You can put a number in front of any of the these strings to define how many characters of the string must be used, for example:
     • %1s : Uses the first letter of the surname
     • %5g : Uses the first five letters of the given name
   • Invalid characters that are contained in a user's name are not used in the e-mail address (in accordance with Request for Comments [RFC] 821/822). If you use the %r replacement string to substitute a valid character for an invalid character, all of the %r string is ignored. Additionally, %r must be used immediately before a replacement string where you want to replace characters.
   • If you want to replace character "x" with character "y" in the last name (represented with %s), an SMTP e-mail address is generated as follows:
     %g.%rxy%s
     For example, if you want to change the user name "JamesC.Wilson", to "JamesC_Wilson", type the following string:
     %g.%r._%s@domain_name.com
   • If the %rxy string is in front of the whole e-mail address, character "x" is not replaced by character "y" in the last name.
     • In the %rxy string, x can equal blank space. This string can be used to merge spaces in the name with a valid character.
     • You cannot use the %rxy string as %r to remove manually typed periods from the Initials field in Active Directory Users and Computers. You may want to remove the manually typed period from the Initials field in Active Directory because this text also affects other attributes.

Example

The following example lists the SMTP address that is generated when you use the replacement strings for the user logon name "jwilson":