How to Turn On and Off Outlook Read Receipts

Have you worked for an hour on the perfect e-mail for a client or co-worker just to find out they never received it? Or know you've sent an e-mail, but someone claims they didn't get. If you have then Outlook Receipts is the solution for you.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Microsoft Outlook

1. 
   Read Receipt Request!

   Read receipts is a great tool from Outlook that allows you to track e-mails you have sent. You can turn on Read Receipts for all your e-mails or just for certain e-mails that are important to you. When the person receives the e-mail message and views it they will be asked to send a read receipt. Remember they do not have to send the Read Receipt to you.

2. 
   Outlook Tools Menu!

   It only takes a few steps to activate Read Receipts for all your messages. First Open Outlook by clicking on your desktop icon. Then click on the Tools menu. See the screen shot for this step.

3. 
   Email Options, Tracking, and So Much More!

   In the Tools Menu select Options which is located at the bottom of the drop down menu. Then Select the E-mail Options which is the first button under the "Preferences" tab. This will take you to the E-mail Options menu as seen in the screen shot.

4. 
   Tracking Options Screen Shot

   Inside E-mail Options you will there is a section for "Message Handling" and "Replies and Forwards". In the "Message Handling" section select the Tracking Options button. This should take you to the screen that is in the screen shot next to this step.

5. 
   Tracking Options so many choices

   The Tracking Options contains several options for handling read receipts. In the middle section you will see options for "All Messages I Send, request:"Read Receipt" or "Delivery Receipt". A "Delivery Receipt" automatically returns a message to you that delivery occurred. Whereas a "Read Receipt" has to be responded to by the receipt.

6. 
   Options looks like the button with 2 hole punches.

   If you want to only send a single "Read Receipt" request instead of sending one for every E-mail then follow these instructions. Open a new e-mail and click on the Options button as seen in the screen shot.

7. 
   Request Reciept for a Single E-mail!

   After clicking on Options it should display the "Message Options" window. In the middle is the Voting and Tracking Options section with a check box for Requesting a Read Receipt as seen in the screen shot. Remember that this only applies to this e-mail.

Tips & Warnings

• You will also notice at the bottom of Tracking Options that you can select how you respond to Read Receipts.
• Only use the Read Receipt for important e-mails that you have to have confirmation.
• If you send a Read Receipt Request with every e-mail people will be unlikely to respond.

Resources

• Ehow - How to Recall an E-mail in Outlook
• Ehow - How to Transfer Addresses to MS Outlook
• Official Guides for Read Receipts from Microsoft