What do you do when you get an email that you know can be better answered by someone else? Chances are you Forward the email. I recently found out about Redirects which are often more appropriate than Forwards. Here’s how to do a redirect and why it may be better than Forward.
When you forward an email to someone, and the person replies, the reply comes back to YOU and not the original sender, so then you’re stuck forwarding it again.
You can avoid being the messenger-in-between by doing a REDIRECT instead of a Forward.
To Redirect an Email in Outlook:
Open the email in its own Window (i.e. you can’t do this if you’re looking at the email in the Reading Pane)
Select the Message Tab and then click Actions (or More Move Actions depending in your version of Outlook).
Click Resend this Message.
The message You do not appear to be the original sender of this message. Are you sure you want to resend it? will be displayed. Click Yes.
Address the email to the person you want to send it to (and type any notes etc. that you want in the email).
Click Send.
What happens when the recipient receives the email and clicks Reply
When the recipient receives the email, it will show that it is from you but on behalf of the original sender.
Now when the he or she clicks Reply, the reply will go to the original sender instead of to you.
Some final thoughts:
If you still want to be included in the reply to the email then I recommend that you use Forward instead of Redirect but remember to CC the original sender of the email too.
However if you just want to pass on the email and then stay out of it, Redirect is the way to go.
Did you know about Redirects (I didn’t)? Do you think they are useful? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
I did not know about this feature. It will be very helpful as I often receive emails that should have been sent to someone else in the School district.
Thanks!
This is a great tip — I have used resend before, but never considered using it for this purpose. Brilliant!
A very useful tip for ssomething many of us do frequently!
I KNOW redirects will be useful. I use both Outlook and Eudora on an almost daily basis. Eudora has had redirects for years, and I use the function frequently. I am delighted to learn that I can now do redirects in Outlook.
Many thanks!
Very useful to know. Thank you. Danie
I knew about resending emails, but I did not know or realize that a reply would go directly to the original sender.
Very useful. Thanks for the info.
I didn’t know about redirecting an email, however, it didn’t work for me.
Instead of resending it, I received a message advising ‘You do not have permission to send the message on bahalf of the specified user’.
Any ideas?
Awesome and very very useful !!
Hi there,
I spend half my life forwarding emails to members of staff to deal with so this is brilliant for me!
Thanks
Carole.
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Unfortunately you won’t be able to do this unless you have ‘send on behalf’ privileges for the mailbox from which you’re sending. An administrator can help with this, but it is a mailbox, by mailbox process…
I tried it and got the same message as Alan Dent ‘You do not have permission to send the message on bahalf of the specified user’. I suspect it is because we on Exchange Server and one can get authority to write emails for other people – eg PAs for their bosses.
I don’t see this option in Outlook 2010. Too old?
It didn’t work for me. I got the following error message:
“You can’t send a message on behalf of this user unless you have permission to do so. Please make sure you’re sending on behalf of the correct sender, or request the necessary permission. If the problem continues, please contact your helpdesk”
Is your email setup using Exchange Server? There may be permission issues depending on how the admin has set things up.
Is your email setup using Exchange Server? There may be permission issues depending on how the admin has set things up.
No. The feature is on Outlook 2010.
I, too, am on Exchange Server, so this doesn’t work. I get the permission error.
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