Outlook "recall sent mail" should NOT be limited to unread mail.

[CreggH]

As implemented, Outlooks "Recall This Message" feature is of limited
practical value. This is because it only recalls unread mail. When Corporate
Communications send out a broadcast email to 10,000 employees and later finds
a mistake (and this happens 2 or 3 times a year) they need to be able to
recall it from EVERYONE, not just those who have not yet read it, not just
those who agree to the recall.

We used to use Lotus Notes and our IT staff developed a utility that could
send a recall request to every mail server and it would delete all instances
of any desired message--including those containing viruses, those sent in
error, or those with overly large attachments. Our tool was not very fast,
but it was reliable.

Now that we use Outlook, we waste a lot of time explaining to people how the
Outlook recall doesn't really do what they expect, or what they need.

Thanks.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...9ac4a125f&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.general

 

[Joe McGuire]

Just a thought. I am not a Microsoft MVP and know nothing about Lotus
Notes. However, as an OL user I would think recalling mail that has
already been read by its recipients seems like it would create a lot of
confusion, both in corporate as well as personal communications. If, for
example, I read your e-mail directing me to, say, appear for a meeting, I
would comply. If I got a second e-mail telling me you changed the time and
place of the meeting, there would be no problem. As long as I read my
e-mail I should have no trouble keeping up with things. But if insteadof
sending me the second e-mail you pulled the first and substituted another
with the up-to-date information, how would I know there was a change? To
stay current I would not only have to read my e-mail, which is to be
expected, but I would have to keep re-reading it to see if somebody slipped
a change in there somewhere. And then I would have to continuously compare
what is in my inbox with what was in there yesterday or an hour ago--except
that you may have already pulled your message.

Even if a message were merely withdrawn without a replacement inserted in
its place, there is still the potential for confusion. I will still have to
keep checking my inbox to see if anything got yanked since I last looked.
And, at least with Outlook, I am not aware of a way to know that something
got pulled except that I knew it was there and it's not there now.
Moreover, I might have moved the message somewhere else, since perhaps my
company stricly limits the size of my mailbox. If I have already moved it
or even deleted it (perhaps I put our meeting on the Calendar and deleted
your message about the time and place), how would I know there was a change?

The situation you pose--2 or 3 messages a year with a huge distribution list
have to be withdrawn--is interesting. But there is a pretty straightforward
and simple solution: a second message using the same distribution list
asking the recipients to disregard or delete the original message.

 

[Andrew]

This sounds like it could be a good feature, but maybe as an administrator
feature. So that when HR sends out a draft of a letter that was not final
they can completely recall it with the help of IT. I don't think this should
be a user setting.