Preserving full email addresses when forwarding or saving Outlook

[sjlee]

How does one preserve the full email address of recipients when replying,
forwarding, and saving Outlook email messages? I've had problems in both
Outlook 2007 (which I'm using now) and Outlook 2003.

A very elegant feature of Outlook *Express* is that one can drag & drop
messages into Windows Explorer, and the most important contents (e.g. full
addresses of all "To:" and "Cc:" recipients are preserved. These can even be
seen by opening the *.eml files as plain text.

Although cumbersome, I don't terribly mind using the "Save As..." function
in Outlook to save text files, but the main problem is that full email
addresses are often discarded and replaced by names (e.g. merely "John Doe",
rather than "(e-mail address removed)".

I tried deactivating the "Automatic name checking" in the "Advanced Email
Options" dialog, but that doesn't work. I've also experimented with manually
changing the "Display as..." field for several entries in my Contacts list,
but that's not really a solution because I still suffer from the dropping of
full email addresses for recipients who are not in my Contacts list.

Thanks for considering this issue, and hope someone can help...

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You haven't clarified exactly where you want to save these addresses. They
will always be available in any message you forward or reply to in the email
header. The only time they might not be is if you are trying to print
messages.

 

[sjlee]

Thanks very much for considering the question.
I'll try to be more specific with two particular "wish list" items...

1. Is it possible to set Outlook to always display full email addresses
rather than person names for any forwarded or replied messages, so that such
information will be visible even when printing?

2. Is is possible to use Outlook's "Save As..." feature while forcing the
full email addresses to be preserved in those files? My wish is to save
individual messages and organize them as separate text files in Windows
Explorer.

Right now the text files that I create using "Save As..." often discard the
full email addresses and leave person names. I see that it preserves the
"From:" address, but noticed that many of the "To:" and "Cc:" addresses get
replaced with person names, and think it is based on whether or not the
original sender had name aliases instead of actual email addresses in his/her
mail program.

I know one solution is to save *.msg files or to use Outlook-specific
archiving, etc. Just as a matter of preference I was wishing for the option
to store plain text files on my hard drive without losing email address
information...an old habit from years of doing so with Outlook Express *.eml
files.

Thanks again,
-John

You haven't clarified exactly where you want to save these addresses. They
will always be available in any message you forward or reply to in the email
header. The only time they might not be is if you are trying to print
messages.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

How does one preserve the full email address of recipients when replying,
forwarding, and saving Outlook email messages? I've had problems in both
Outlook 2007 (which I'm using now) and Outlook 2003.

A very elegant feature of Outlook *Express* is that one can drag & drop
messages into Windows Explorer, and the most important contents (e.g. full
addresses of all "To:" and "Cc:" recipients are preserved. These can even
be
seen by opening the *.eml files as plain text.

Although cumbersome, I don't terribly mind using the "Save As..." function
in Outlook to save text files, but the main problem is that full email
addresses are often discarded and replaced by names (e.g. merely "John
Doe",
rather than "(e-mail address removed)".

I tried deactivating the "Automatic name checking" in the "Advanced Email
Options" dialog, but that doesn't work. I've also experimented with
manually
changing the "Display as..." field for several entries in my Contacts
list,
but that's not really a solution because I still suffer from the dropping
of
full email addresses for recipients who are not in my Contacts list.

Thanks for considering this issue, and hope someone can help...

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Saving messages as text files will often save only the familiar name that
the sender uses for Email Display As and lose the connection to the actual
address. There are plenty of valid ways to save messages that don't require
a change in format. I'd use a supported method for saving messages.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks very much for considering the question.
I'll try to be more specific with two particular "wish list" items...

1. Is it possible to set Outlook to always display full email addresses
rather than person names for any forwarded or replied messages, so that
such
information will be visible even when printing?

2. Is is possible to use Outlook's "Save As..." feature while forcing the
full email addresses to be preserved in those files? My wish is to save
individual messages and organize them as separate text files in Windows
Explorer.

Right now the text files that I create using "Save As..." often discard
the
full email addresses and leave person names. I see that it preserves the
"From:" address, but noticed that many of the "To:" and "Cc:" addresses
get
replaced with person names, and think it is based on whether or not the
original sender had name aliases instead of actual email addresses in
his/her
mail program.

I know one solution is to save *.msg files or to use Outlook-specific
archiving, etc. Just as a matter of preference I was wishing for the
option
to store plain text files on my hard drive without losing email address
information...an old habit from years of doing so with Outlook Express
*.eml
files.

Thanks again,
-John

You haven't clarified exactly where you want to save these addresses.
They
will always be available in any message you forward or reply to in the
email
header. The only time they might not be is if you are trying to print
messages.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

How does one preserve the full email address of recipients when
replying,
forwarding, and saving Outlook email messages? I've had problems in
both
Outlook 2007 (which I'm using now) and Outlook 2003.

A very elegant feature of Outlook *Express* is that one can drag & drop
messages into Windows Explorer, and the most important contents (e.g.
full
addresses of all "To:" and "Cc:" recipients are preserved. These can
even
be
seen by opening the *.eml files as plain text.

Although cumbersome, I don't terribly mind using the "Save As..."
function
in Outlook to save text files, but the main problem is that full email
addresses are often discarded and replaced by names (e.g. merely "John
Doe",
rather than "(e-mail address removed)".

I tried deactivating the "Automatic name checking" in the "Advanced
Email
Options" dialog, but that doesn't work. I've also experimented with
manually
changing the "Display as..." field for several entries in my Contacts
list,
but that's not really a solution because I still suffer from the
dropping
of
full email addresses for recipients who are not in my Contacts list.

Thanks for considering this issue, and hope someone can help...

 

[sjlee]

Yes, I suppose that's a trade-off with which I'm stuck if I want to have a
more universal plain-text format instead of application-specific format, more
functionally comprehensive as the latter may be. Thanks for taking the time
to consider the question.

For any other old-fashioned folks like me who prefer plain-text archiving,
Outlook Express's *.eml is quite nice because any text reader (e.g. Notepad)
can view the file. It retains detailed header information and has
drag-and-drop compatibility with Windows Explorer.

I'm still waiting to see what happens with Windows Live Mail...It seems
sluggish and/or I'm just resistant to adopting latest changes...

Saving messages as text files will often save only the familiar name that
the sender uses for Email Display As and lose the connection to the actual
address. There are plenty of valid ways to save messages that don't require
a change in format. I'd use a supported method for saving messages.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks very much for considering the question.
I'll try to be more specific with two particular "wish list" items...

1. Is it possible to set Outlook to always display full email addresses
rather than person names for any forwarded or replied messages, so that
such
information will be visible even when printing?

2. Is is possible to use Outlook's "Save As..." feature while forcing the
full email addresses to be preserved in those files? My wish is to save
individual messages and organize them as separate text files in Windows
Explorer.

Right now the text files that I create using "Save As..." often discard
the
full email addresses and leave person names. I see that it preserves the
"From:" address, but noticed that many of the "To:" and "Cc:" addresses
get
replaced with person names, and think it is based on whether or not the
original sender had name aliases instead of actual email addresses in
his/her
mail program.

I know one solution is to save *.msg files or to use Outlook-specific
archiving, etc. Just as a matter of preference I was wishing for the
option
to store plain text files on my hard drive without losing email address
information...an old habit from years of doing so with Outlook Express
*.eml
files.

Thanks again,
-John

You haven't clarified exactly where you want to save these addresses.
They
will always be available in any message you forward or reply to in the
email
header. The only time they might not be is if you are trying to print
messages.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
How does one preserve the full email address of recipients when
replying,
forwarding, and saving Outlook email messages? I've had problems in
both
Outlook 2007 (which I'm using now) and Outlook 2003.

A very elegant feature of Outlook *Express* is that one can drag & drop
messages into Windows Explorer, and the most important contents (e.g.
full
addresses of all "To:" and "Cc:" recipients are preserved. These can
even
be
seen by opening the *.eml files as plain text.

Although cumbersome, I don't terribly mind using the "Save As..."
function
in Outlook to save text files, but the main problem is that full email
addresses are often discarded and replaced by names (e.g. merely "John
Doe",
rather than "(e-mail address removed)".

I tried deactivating the "Automatic name checking" in the "Advanced
Email
Options" dialog, but that doesn't work. I've also experimented with
manually
changing the "Display as..." field for several entries in my Contacts
list,
but that's not really a solution because I still suffer from the
dropping
of
full email addresses for recipients who are not in my Contacts list.

Thanks for considering this issue, and hope someone can help...

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Thanks very much for considering the question.
I'll try to be more specific with two particular "wish list" items...

1. Is it possible to set Outlook to always display full email addresses
rather than person names for any forwarded or replied messages, so that
such
information will be visible even when printing?
No.

2. Is is possible to use Outlook's "Save As..." feature while forcing the
full email addresses to be preserved in those files? My wish is to save
individual messages and organize them as separate text files in Windows
Explorer.

Answered by Russ, but I think saving Outlook messages to the Windows file
system for storage purposes to be less than optimal because an external
message won't contain all the data it does while it's in Outlook.