The Group by Conversation view uses the conversation index.
Conversation index is an outlook property - other mail clients use the
message id and reference (or in reply to) fields in the internet header to
assist in grouping messages and some fall back on subject if the reference
field is missing. Outlook doesn't, in part because it was mostly the
Exchange client in the early years, used mostly for biz mail and no one
thought (or complained ) much about grouping.
If all replies come from outlook, it groups very nicely, with replies
indented below the original (much the same as it does with the web interface
you use to read this group). When other clients are used for replies weird
things can happen. Using the reference field is not without problems - if
someone decides to start a new message by hitting reply, changing the
subject and deleting the message body (as many people do), clients that use
the reference field only see it as a reply. It's very irritating because its
in the wrong thread, not starting its own thread. In this case, grouping by
subject makes sense.
Some clients add extra spaces before or after RE (or FW), which makes the
subject look new, so outlook (and gmail) start a new thread - see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245199 for a description of how the
Microsoft mail clients handle subject tags (contrary to the article's
Applies to, it is valid for all current email clients released by MS). If
there is a space, it messes up the detection. This is an ongoing problem
with mailing list - a few list servers are still adding extra spaces when
they rewrite the header to add a list name tag ([list_name]) and this messes
up threading in both outlook and gmail.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips by email:
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EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
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newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
Gerdo said:
Okay. But can you explain me more what you mean by " If the conversation
index is missing from the internet header". I am no specialist. Please
explain that more simple.
I see in Outlook I can also sort by conversation index instead of sort by
conversation. Should I sort by conversation index?
Maybe you can explain step by step how you make your view settings to get
a
more or less Gmail look and feel.
Thanks a lot for your help.
Diane Poremsky said:
If the conversation index is missing from the internet header, outlook
uses
the subject.
FWIW, google isn't perfect - i often send test messages to my gmail
address
and google also groups them by subject.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips by email:
(e-mail address removed)
EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)
You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
Hello,
Here is a question I cannot figure out. We all have multiple
conversations
with identical subject lines stored. Personally I use IMAP from Gmail.
The
webmail display all conversations perfectly, and can separate
conversations
with the same subject lines.
In outlook when I group the conversations I get mails from different
conversations grouped together, just because they share the same
subject
line.
Seems that Gmail can sort out this better then Outlook. I use Outlook
2003.
Nevertheless, I am look for a solution in outlook. If any pro out there
can
help me with this I would be gratefull ..
Thanks in advance.
