Message thread management

[M. Eteum]

How would one thread messages by conversation that include all
conversation including the original sender(kind of the newsgroup threads)?

The View -> Arrange By -> COnversation do not include my reply to the
thread but others. How do I tell outlook 2003 to also include my reply
as well?

Thanks.

M.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

you can't tell it to include the reply - if the subject line is correctly
formatted, the messages will group together properly. If the mail client
adds spaces before the Re, it will not group correctly. This happens most
often when the replies come from a mix of mail clients.

 

[M. Eteum]

you can't tell it to include the reply - if the subject line is
correctly formatted, the messages will group together properly. If the
mail client adds spaces before the Re, it will not group correctly. This
happens most often when the replies come from a mix of mail clients.

Is there a way to fix this, perhaps running it thru a simple filter that
has a bit more intelligent than the outlook engine, e.g. using a pattern
matching right-to-left-of-the-subject-line instead of right-to-left to
avoid issues such as spaces, double Re: Re: etc.

If possible, how do I redirect all messages(incoming & outgoing) thru
this filter prior to the outlook engine?

Thanks.

M.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

The subject field in an open message is editable - so try editing the
subjects so all are identical (may need to add Re: to the original message
in the thread or remove it from the others) then group by subject. If that
fails, the fields the grouping fails on are not editable.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Is there a way to fix this, perhaps running it thru a simple filter
that has a bit more intelligent than the outlook engine, e.g. using a
pattern matching right-to-left-of-the-subject-line instead of
right-to-left to avoid issues such as spaces, double Re: Re: etc.

If possible, how do I redirect all messages(incoming & outgoing) thru
this filter prior to the outlook engine?

In addition to what Diane said, keep in mind that your replies are likely in
the Sent Items folder and not your Inbox or whatever folder contains the
message to which you replied (but I'm sure you know that), so even a "by
conversation" view won't show messages that aren't in that folder. You
might consider a search folder that encompasses both your Inbox and Sent
Items folders.

 

[M. Eteum]

In addition to what Diane said, keep in mind that your replies are
likely in the Sent Items folder and not your Inbox or whatever folder
contains the message to which you replied (but I'm sure you know that),
so even a "by conversation" view won't show messages that aren't in that
folder. You might consider a search folder that encompasses both your
Inbox and Sent Items folders.

Thanks Diane & Brian. I can see the problem here that the thread
mechanism is using the subject title as the grouping name. And yes, I've
seen the Re: Re: Re: somewhere.

0-) Would it be possible to write a filter/handler prior to
sending/receving email? If possible,

1-) how do I insert it so outlook would re-direct all incoming/outgoing
thru this filter?
2-) is there any simple filter/handler example, e.g. prepend the word
TEST on the subject line (after the Re: if it exist), using simple VBA
scripts or C#.

Thanks,

M.