Outlook - mark emails as read setting

[taysr]

I don't really expect to find an answer to this as I don't think it's possible, but doesn't hurt to ask. I have a client with a shared mailbox in outlook and they leave emails as unread until it's been actioned, one user is going in and marking it as read but there's no way to tell who it is. All the default settings for outlook have been modified to only mark the email as READ once it's been opened, so previewing the email or switching from the email to another wont mark it as read.

I'd ideally like to be able to do the following two things:
1. Find out who marked the email as read
2. Only mark the email as READ by right clicking the email and marking as read, so even if a user opens the email it's still left as unread

Pretty sure either one is not possible but thought I'd ask the question anyway.

 

[Markverhyden]

If there's even the slimmest of possibilities of what you want to do I'd venture a guess it would be using Power Shell connecting to the Exchange server.

 

[NJW]

Could you automatically tag or flag incoming mail, then have the client manually remove said tag/flag when the message is actioned? Read/unread wouldn't matter; outstanding messages would be easy to filter or search.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Could you automatically tag or flag incoming mail, then have the client manually remove said tag/flag when the message is actioned? Read/unread wouldn't matter; outstanding messages would be easy to filter or search.

This is what i would suggest. I've told a few clients to flag/pin emails and once they are actioned remove the flag/pin. It doesnt give information about who did it, but it stops them being missed

 

[Mick]

I don't really expect to find an answer to this as I don't think it's possible, but doesn't hurt to ask. I have a client with a shared mailbox in outlook and they leave emails as unread until it's been actioned, one user is going in and marking it as read but there's no way to tell who it is. All the default settings for outlook have been modified to only mark the email as READ once it's been opened, so previewing the email or switching from the email to another wont mark it as read.

I'd ideally like to be able to do the following two things:
1. Find out who marked the email as read
2. Only mark the email as READ by right clicking the email and marking as read, so even if a user opens the email it's still left as unread

Pretty sure either one is not possible but thought I'd ask the question anyway.

Forgive me if this sounds stupid, but can't you just ask your clients which of them is doing this? Doesn't sound like a sacking offence.

 

[britechguy]

but can't you just ask your clients which of them is doing this?

From the description originally given, the answer would seem to be, "Each one has to do this as a part of daily office life." And if the volume of mail is high enough, it's very easy indeed to forget which specific messages you're the one who dealt with, particularly as time goes by.

If they really want to keep using email in this way, they had ought to consider forwarding completed messages where the person forwarding would log their own name in the forwarding message (as I have to presume a shared email account is being used. If not, then just forwarding the message to "the done address" would serve double duty so that one could cross-check on the rare occasions where necessary).

These shared email schemes as a tracking device are generally a PITA and always involve having a set protocol with steps that will often get missed when push comes to shove.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sounds like they need an actual ticket system instead of trying to do this via email.

 

[britechguy]

Sounds like they need an actual ticket system instead of trying to do this via email.

And such exist for creating "real tickets" based upon email messages sent to a specific address. Vispero/Freedom Scientific (maker of the JAWS screen reader) and Groups.io (hybrid emailing list/web forum) are but two examples of where, when you send email addressed to support, a ticket is generated and you receive an automated response about same.

Neither of these entities is "a big company" in any sense, so whatever they're using is likely to be relatively inexpensive or, perhaps, even open source. I'm sure that there are a great many more companies that do the same and that many among our readership could rattle off other examples.

 

[nlinecomputers]

And such exist for creating "real tickets" based upon email messages sent to a specific address. Vispero/Freedom Scientific (maker of the JAWS screen reader) and Groups.io (hybrid emailing list/web forum) are but two examples of where, when you send email addressed to support, a ticket is generated and you receive an automated response about same.

Neither of these entities is "a big company" in any sense, so whatever they're using is likely to be relatively inexpensive or, perhaps, even open source. I'm sure that there are a great many more companies that do the same and that many among our readership could rattle off other examples.

Yep. And such a system could still be done in an “up for grabs” method, as it’s inferred here. And a true ticket system means you get tracking on how long a ticket remains unassigned, how long it takes to resolve, all communications regarding the ticket is filed with it, and so on. And tickets can be automatically escalated if they sit unassigned. Because what is obviously going on is that one of the sales/support/CSR/whatever members is opening up an email and doesn’t want to do the job and so the ticket gets abandoned because everyone else thinks someone took it. There is no accountability as it works now.