False new mail indicator when using rules flagging mail read

[BuzzCatZar]

Using Microsoft Office 2003 -- Outlook

Anyone ever notice how the new mail systray indicator will stay active for
email received that has a rule to automatically mark it read and delete it?
While I suppose I could understand someone reasoning that they actually like
this feature, I do not. Too bad there's not an implemantation to allow user
control over this or in the very least a way to communicate this design [bug]
feature back to Microsoft.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...3beeb8be5&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.general

 

[Brian Tillman]

Anyone ever notice how the new mail systray indicator will stay
active for email received that has a rule to automatically mark it
read and delete it? While I suppose I could understand someone
reasoning that they actually like this feature, I do not. Too bad
there's not an implemantation to allow user control over this or in
the very least a way to communicate this design [bug] feature back to
Microsoft.

The problem is that the code that displays the New Mail icon runs before
your rules run and, since it can't see the future, it won't know that a
message is going to be deleted and marked as read. Moreover, your rule that
marks your messge as read has no idea if there are any other new messages in
the Inbox that it won't mark as read, so it would be inadvisable for such a
rule to turn off the icon. In short, there''s no simple heuristic that can
determine when to turn that icon off. So, the logic that's used is "turn it
on when a message comes in" and "turn it off when a messge is opened". The
message that is opened doesn't even have to be a new message.