Recalling a Message

If you use Outlook as an e-mail client in a Microsoft Exchange Server environment, you can actually recall or replace e-mail messages that you have sent. But you can only recall or replace messages that have not been opened by the recipient or moved to another folder by a recipient.

If the Folder List is not visible, click the View menu, and then click Folder List .

1. Click the My Shortcuts button on the Navigation pane, and then select the Sent Items folder.

2. Double-click to open the message that you want to recall.

3. In the message window, click the Actions menu, and then click Recall This Message . The Recall This Message dialog box opens as shown in Figure 4.7.

   Figure 4.7. Messages that have not been read can be recalled or replaced .

   

4. To recall the message, click the Delete Unread Copies of This Message option button, and then click OK . A notice appears in the message window informing you that you attempted to recall this message on a particular date and at a particular time.

5. If you want to replace the message with a new message, click the Delete Unread Copies and Replace with New Message option button. When you click OK , a new message window opens with a copy of the message you want to recall in it. Just change the message text or address and then send the message.

6. You eventually receive a notification in your Inbox (as new mail) notifying you whether the recall was successful.

Although you can't recall messages that are sent as Internet e-mail, you can use this feature to notify the recipients of a particular e-mail message that you want them to ignore the message. Use the message recall feature as detailed in the steps in this section. When you "recall" the message, a new message is sent to the original recipient (or recipients) that states you would like to recall the previous message. This doesn't remove the original message from their inbox but it at least provides them with a follow-up message that lets them know that the original message is essentially invalid.