Display real sender address as in mail headers, instead of full name from address book

[Lucvdv]

Is there a way to make Outlook display the sender's name as it occurs in a
mail's FROM header, instead of looking up the address in the adress book
and displaying the full name it finds there (if it exists there)?


I'm using Outlook 2003 to retrieve mails from two sources: an Exchange
server for all 'normal' internal and internet mail, and a POP server that
receives mails that are automatically generated by software running on
machines spread across a WAN.

The software sends mails with sender addresses similar to this in the
"From" header:

"source 1" <[email protected]>
"source 2" <[email protected]>
"source 3" <[email protected]>
"source 4" <[email protected]>

The address is always my exchange address (or actually an alias for it that
was entered in my domain account properties). Changing that is not really
an option, because the mails go to several recipients, and if someone
replies to one of them the reply should arrive in my mailbox.


Outlook always displays my full name as sender like it occurs in the
exchange address book (despite the fact that the mails don't arrive through
nor are ever stored in Exchange), which sometimes makes it hard to
determine from which machine (or application) the mail really comes.

Instead of my name, I want it to display the sender name as it is in the
mail headers, i.e. "source 1", "source 2" etc., but without forcing me to
change the actual mail address that's being used.

Is there a way to accomplish this?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Did you try editing the Email Display As field for the Contact in question?
That's what Outlook uses.

 

[Marvin P. Winterbottom]

I think he's asking what many others have asked, why not give us the real
email address instead of the friendly name, and the friendly answer from MS
is... nuts.

Did you try editing the Email Display As field for the Contact in question?
That's what Outlook uses.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Is there a way to make Outlook display the sender's name as it occurs in a
mail's FROM header, instead of looking up the address in the adress book
and displaying the full name it finds there (if it exists there)?


I'm using Outlook 2003 to retrieve mails from two sources: an Exchange
server for all 'normal' internal and internet mail, and a POP server that
receives mails that are automatically generated by software running on
machines spread across a WAN.

The software sends mails with sender addresses similar to this in the
"From" header:

"source 1" <[email protected]>
"source 2" <[email protected]>
"source 3" <[email protected]>
"source 4" <[email protected]>

The address is always my exchange address (or actually an alias for it
that
was entered in my domain account properties). Changing that is not really
an option, because the mails go to several recipients, and if someone
replies to one of them the reply should arrive in my mailbox.


Outlook always displays my full name as sender like it occurs in the
exchange address book (despite the fact that the mails don't arrive
through
nor are ever stored in Exchange), which sometimes makes it hard to
determine from which machine (or application) the mail really comes.

Instead of my name, I want it to display the sender name as it is in the
mail headers, i.e. "source 1", "source 2" etc., but without forcing me to
change the actual mail address that's being used.

Is there a way to accomplish this?

 

[Lucvdv]

Did you try editing the Email Display As field for the Contact in question?
That's what Outlook uses.

Yes, and that's exactly what the problem is. It shouldn't be using that
for incoming mails, but when it finds the sender's address in the address
book, it discards the mail header and shows the address book entry instead.

That's a poor design choice for more than one reason (the main one being
that it would be a lot easier to discern real mail from spam if they didn't
try to hide mail header contents like this).


In my case there are mails coming from several different locations, each
with a different 'readable' address in the From field, but always the same
e-mail address. Editing the friendly name would just change it for them
all.


The best solution would be one that stops Outlook from looking up the
sender addresses of incoming mails in the address book and displaying the
friendly names it finds there instead of what the mail says.


The most logical solution would seem to be to use a unique sender address
per location in conjunction with a common Reply-To, but there's a problem
there: the code has to be legally certified, and adding the Reply-to header
would require a source code change.

The certification process is a bit complicated, and more expensive than
it's worth to change how a mail sender is displayed.

Not even thinking about the redtape involved, the source has to be reviewed
and analyzed, compiled in a controlled environment, the executable
resulting from that compilation is hashed. The only executable we're
allowed to run is the one with the correct hash, and each and every
location where it is used has to be re-certified for running the correct
version after the change.

 

[Lucvdv]

Yes, and that's exactly what the problem is. It shouldn't be using that
for incoming mails, but when it finds the sender's address in the address
book, it discards the mail header and shows the address book entry instead.

Hmmm... I just stopped and restarted outlook (I read something in another
thread about that making it forget addresses).

Now all mails that arrived from that moment on are displaying their sender
correctly: the friendly name as in the From: header, instead of the
friendly name from the address book.

The headers are in RFC format,
"name" <address>
Outlook translates it to
name [address]
but it's using the name from the header this time, instead of the address
book name.


But it keeps showing the address book name in those mails that arrived
before the restart.


I wonder how long the "fix" is going to stick, but at least I expect I'll
be able to repair it if it starts doing it again.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook already does this and has for years. By default, Email Display As
contains both the familiar name and the actual email address.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I think he's asking what many others have asked, why not give us the real
email address instead of the friendly name, and the friendly answer from
MS
is... nuts.

Did you try editing the Email Display As field for the Contact in
question?
That's what Outlook uses.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Is there a way to make Outlook display the sender's name as it occurs
in a
mail's FROM header, instead of looking up the address in the adress
book
and displaying the full name it finds there (if it exists there)?


I'm using Outlook 2003 to retrieve mails from two sources: an Exchange
server for all 'normal' internal and internet mail, and a POP server
that
receives mails that are automatically generated by software running on
machines spread across a WAN.

The software sends mails with sender addresses similar to this in the
"From" header:

"source 1" <[email protected]>
"source 2" <[email protected]>
"source 3" <[email protected]>
"source 4" <[email protected]>

The address is always my exchange address (or actually an alias for it
that
was entered in my domain account properties). Changing that is not
really
an option, because the mails go to several recipients, and if someone
replies to one of them the reply should arrive in my mailbox.


Outlook always displays my full name as sender like it occurs in the
exchange address book (despite the fact that the mails don't arrive
through
nor are ever stored in Exchange), which sometimes makes it hard to
determine from which machine (or application) the mail really comes.

Instead of my name, I want it to display the sender name as it is in
the
mail headers, i.e. "source 1", "source 2" etc., but without forcing me
to
change the actual mail address that's being used.

Is there a way to accomplish this?