Identities in Outlook 2010

[Jim S]

I thought I had set up different identities, but when I get replies and
when I check my Sent folder all the email say they are from my default
address. What am I doing wrong?

 

[VanguardLH]

I thought I had set up different identities, but when I get replies and
when I check my Sent folder all the email say they are from my default
address. What am I doing wrong?

There are no "identities" in Outlook. For an "identity", do you mean an
account defined in Outlook or a whole separate mail profile (under which
is a separate list of e-mail accounts defined)?

When composing new e-mail, the default account is used (within a mail
profile). When replying to an e-mail, the account through which the
original e-mail was received is used to send your reply. If you want to
use a different account than the default one then use the Accounts
toolbar button (or maybe you use the From field provided you configure
to show it - I don't have OL2010 to look at to see which method to use)
to choose an account through which to send your new or reply e-mail.

http://www.outlook-tips.net/tips/tip-775-ol2010-select-account-before-sending/
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlook-2010/multiple-accounts-and-the-default-account/

You didn't say if you were using just POP accounts, just IMAP accounts,
or a mix of them. All POP accounts are aggregated into a single .pst
file. Each IMAP account gets its own separate .pst file.

 

[Jim S]

There are no "identities" in Outlook. For an "identity", do you mean an
account defined in Outlook or a whole separate mail profile (under which
is a separate list of e-mail accounts defined)?

When composing new e-mail, the default account is used (within a mail
profile). When replying to an e-mail, the account through which the
original e-mail was received is used to send your reply. If you want to
use a different account than the default one then use the Accounts
toolbar button (or maybe you use the From field provided you configure
to show it - I don't have OL2010 to look at to see which method to use)
to choose an account through which to send your new or reply e-mail.

http://www.outlook-tips.net/tips/tip-775-ol2010-select-account-before-sending/
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlook-2010/multiple-accounts-and-the-default-account/

You didn't say if you were using just POP accounts, just IMAP accounts,
or a mix of them. All POP accounts are aggregated into a single .pst
file. Each IMAP account gets its own separate .pst file.

I am on a single Gmail IMAP account.
I also have a domain address whose catchall redirects to my Gmail address.
The Outlook account is set up as my default domain address and the SMTP is
Gmail

Outlook 2010 has a 'From' bar into which I have put a couple of addresses
eg (e-mail address removed). I want people to post back to that address which is
what happens OK if I post from eg Yahoo Mail.

 

[Jim S]

Oh. I get it.
The 'From' box is only of use if I have several ACCOUNTS.
Why the hell did it let me enter whatever I chose in that box?

I really hate Outlook, but can find nothing better.

 

[VanguardLH]

I am on a single Gmail IMAP account.
I also have a domain address whose catchall redirects to my Gmail address.
The Outlook account is set up as my default domain address and the SMTP is
Gmail

Outlook 2010 has a 'From' bar into which I have put a couple of addresses
eg (e-mail address removed). I want people to post back to that address which is
what happens OK if I post from eg Yahoo Mail.

Alas, Outlook will not completely lie to the recipient as to what you
claim is your e-mail address when using the From field when composing an
e-mail. The value you specify will get put into the From header but
Outlook will also add something like an "On behalf of" header (I forget
what it's called). So the e-mail account defined in Outlook through
which you send your e-mail will be identified in another header while
the From header shows what you wanted the recipient to see and use.

As I recall, Gmail adds its own headers that will identify from what
account an e-mail originated from there. Despite what you had your
client insert in the From header (which is transferred in the DATA
command by your client to the server along with the body of your message
and why it cannot be trusted to be the true source of an e-mail since
the sender gets to specify it), Gmail adds the following header:

Return-Path: <youraccount>

Gmail isn't looking inside the data of your message to see what your
client specified in the From header it added. Gmail prepends its own
headers, like this one, to e-mails you send from their service. So the
recipient can still see the Gmail account from which you originated an
e-mail. While Outlook lets you try to lie, or redirect replies to
elsewhere, using the From header (a client specified header, not one
added by the server), some e-mail providers will still identify the
sending account using their service. As long as your recipients don't
look at the headers then they don't know the e-mail came from somewhere
other than claimed.

Most users just see the From header (what you or your e-mail client
specified which is nothing the server inserted). When they reply, that
is to where their message will go UNLESS you specified a Reply-To header
(also something you or your e-mail client adds, not the server). So
perhaps you configured the account in Outlook with a non-blank Reply-To
value. For each account you defined in Outlook, check its properties to
see if you specified a non-blank value for the "Reply E-mail" field.
That's what goes into the Reply-To header.

Could be the Yahoo account defined in Outlook has a blank Reply-To value
while the Gmail account defined in Outlook has a non-blank Reply-To
value.

 

[Jim S]

Thanks. I have solved the problem with Thunderbird. It has
identities which must be verified by Gmail before you can use them,
but it seems to work.

 

[VanguardLH]

Oh. I get it.
The 'From' box is only of use if I have several ACCOUNTS.
Why the hell did it let me enter whatever I chose in that box?

I really hate Outlook, but can find nothing better.

I'm still using Outlook 2003 at home. With it, and when you configured
the new-mail dialog to show the From field, you could enter what you
wanted in there for what got specified in the "From: <userspecified>"
header in your sent e-mail. From what you describe (I haven't memorized
OL2010 ribbon and options), apparently now it's just an account
selection control.

Previously there was a toolbar button called "Accounts" where you picked
which account to sent out your e-mail. That would also insert the
e-mail address for the selected account but you could override it with
the From field (which was a text input control). The "Accounts" button
is gone and the "From" field replaced it and the old "From:
<userspecified>" field is gone.

You could change the Reply-To field in an account defined in Outlook but
that is a real pain. You would have to edit an account to specify a
non-blank value in the Reply-To field, compose a new e-mail using that
account so the Reply-To header got added, and after sending the e-mail
then go back to edit the account to blank out the Reply-To field.

I remember trialing Windows Live Mail. It also had no option to show a
From field where you could specify an e-mail address different than the
one you configured for the account through which you send an e-mail.
Microsoft giveth and taketh.

Do you use a lot of fake (redirection) e-mail addresses in the From
header or just a couple? For just a few, you could create duplicate
accounts in Outlook with each pointing to the same Gmail account. They
all send (and receive) through the same Gmail account but each would
specify a different From header value. You could have account 1
pointing to your Gmail account that says "From: (e-mail address removed)", account 1
also pointing to your Gmail account that says "From: (e-mail address removed)",
and so on. Then you would use the From drop-down selector to pick on of
the accounts pointing to the same Gmail account. That would give you
"identities" on the same account. If you only want one of them to
receive e-mails from Gmail then you would have to change the
send/receive settings for the other accounts so they do not receive,
just send.

 

[VanguardLH]

Thanks. I have solved the problem with Thunderbird. It has
identities which must be verified by Gmail before you can use them,
but it seems to work.

How do you verify an "identity" (i.e., using a From header different
than your Gmail address) through Gmail? I didn't know Gmail even
bothered to interrogate the client-specified headers (send in the DATA
command).

 

[Jim S]

How do you verify an "identity" (i.e., using a From header different
than your Gmail address) through Gmail? I didn't know Gmail even
bothered to interrogate the client-specified headers (send in the DATA
command).

In Gmail settings you can nominate any address you choose. It then sends
you a verification post so it recognises it when you use it.

 

[Jim S]

I have now discovered that Gmail can use those same addresses from Outlook
now that I have verified them.