How to Tell If Someone Has Read a Sent Email

So many emails...who's reading them?

Have you ever wondered how to tell if an email you send out actually gets read? There is a simple, quick way to do this so you will no longer be left wondering.

Instructions

1. First compose your email as you normally would.

2. 

   Next, you will need to activate the option to request a "read" receipt. Different email clients (aka software) will have different ways to do this. In Outlook Express you need to go to the "Tools" menu at the top of your window and select "Request Read Receipt". (See the attached image.) Selecting this will not appear to do anything, but if you pull down the Tools menu again, you will see that option is now checked.

3. Now, simple send your email as you normally would. It's just that easy. When your recipient opens the email, their email client will generate an email response back to you to confirm that they read it.

Tips & Warnings

• If you cannot easily find how to request a read receipt in your particular email software, go to the "help" menu. Most software applications have an abundance of how-to information in their help area. Most will also have a search function on their help page so enter "read receipt" in the search field to bring up the how-to for this topic.

• Some email clients will warn the user when an email they have opened requests a read receipt. In such cases, the user is given the option of stopping the read receipt, so if your recipient wants to be secretive, you will not get confirmation back. Unfortunately there is no absolute way to confirm that someone reads your email, but in most cases, a recipient will not have a reason to keep this information from you.