In a previous post, I provided a step to step description on how to configure an email account in Outlook, even a Gmail one.

In this post I will talk about some relevant features that are not available in any other email client I know.
The most useful one, in my opinion, is the possibility to ask for a receipt (i.e. a returned email) when an email is delivered to the sent address server and/or it is read by the person who received it. The first receipt should arrive quite soon and allows you to be sure the address is a valid one right away; the second one gives you the certainty that the email has been opened. However, note that the receiver could have set some options (or answered some popup confirmation) in order to not allow the sending of the read receipt even if he open that email: therefore, if that receipt does not arrive you cannot be sure that the email was not read anyway… even though email clients for smartphones usually do not give that possibility to the email receiver, as many other web/PC ones.

In Outlook, while you are writing a new email, you can find that two Check [IT: Verifica] features among the Options [IT: Opzioni] tab:

• Request delivery receipt [IT: Richiedi conferma di recapito]
• Request read receipt [IT: Richiedi conferma di lettura]

If you write a new email, clicking the New email message [IT: Nuovo messaggio di posta elettronica] icon

If Request delivery receipt [IT: Richiedi conferma di recapito] was checked, as soon as that email arrives at the receiver’s mailbox, the following delivery confirmation email is sent to the sender:

Then, if the Request read receipt [IT: Richiedi conferma di lettura] was checked, when the receiver tries to open that email he will be promoted with the following popup message asking him if he agreed that the sender receives a reading notification:

The receiver can decide whether to accept or not, and have or not the requested reading notification be sent to the sender.

If accepted, the sender will receive a reading email notification with the date/time when the event happened:

So you cannot be sure if the receiver has read that email or not if you did not receive that confirmation … but if you receive it, you are sure he did! … and this can anyway be useful in most cases!

Note that in case you reply /forward a received message, you have to Disanchor [IT: Disancora] the reply/forward email, that is by default is embedded in the Outlook main window (click on the Disanchor [IT: Disancora] link on the top right of the embedded reply/forward email) : in fact, only in that case you can have the specific message menu that include that Options [IT: Opzioni] sub-menu, otherwise the main indow menu is related to Outlook features in general and not specifically to that message you are writing:

_____

Another useful feature is the possibility of modifying a received/sent email (Move -> Actions -> Modify message [IT: Sposta -> Azioni -> Modifica messaggio]): in fact, by default a received or already sent email is set to not editable and have to explicitly change that setting:

You can see this Microsoft help page [IT] for further information.