Sending from multiple accounts

[Bob Day]

I have two email accounts, one is POP3 (lets call this Account 1) and the
other a MAPI (e.g. Accout 2). My default accout is the POP3.

When I download email, the received emails go into the correct folders, that
is to say Account 1 email goes in the Busines Folders Inbox and Account 2
mail goes in the Account 2 Inbox folder. No problem there, it works as
expect.

This issues is this: If I write an email on Account 2 and just click send
(remember, account 1 is the POP3 account is default) the email is received
as coming from Account 1. If they reply, it comes back to me as an email
sent to Account 1. This is very confusion to the people receiveing my email
and to me because it shows account 1's email address instead of account 2's
email address.

I realize that each time I write an email in WORD, i can define which
account is sending it (from the Accounts icon on the email toolbar, but this
isn't very practical to do each time.

Is there a way to automatically send from the correct account when I write
an email? The is important so the receipeint sees the correct email it is
coming from.

I am using the latest outlook/word with all the latest updates.

Thanks
Bob

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have two email accounts, one is POP3 (lets call this Account 1) and
the other a MAPI (e.g. Accout 2). My default accout is the POP3.

MAPI? Do you mean it's an Exchange account, or did you really mean to type
"IMAP"?

When I download email, the received emails go into the correct
folders, that is to say Account 1 email goes in the Busines Folders
Inbox and Account 2 mail goes in the Account 2 Inbox folder. No
problem there, it works as expect.

This issues is this: If I write an email on Account 2

You can't write an email "on" an account. You compose a message and then
send it with an account, either the default account or by choosing one
explicitly. When replying, Outlook will always choose the account with
which the message was received.

and just click
send (remember, account 1 is the POP3 account is default) the email
is received as coming from Account 1. If they reply, it comes back
to me as an email sent to Account 1. This is very confusion to the
people receiveing my email and to me because it shows account 1's
email address instead of account 2's email address.

Of course. If you compose a message and don't specify the sending account
explicitly, the default account will be used.

I realize that each time I write an email in WORD, i can define which
account is sending it (from the Accounts icon on the email toolbar,
but this isn't very practical to do each time.

Is there a way to automatically send from the correct account when I
write an email? The is important so the receipeint sees the correct
email it is coming from.

How would you expect Outlook to know which account to use if you don't
specify it? No one has invented mind-reading software yet.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

No, you can't assign a sending account to a contact. You could save
templates with an account selected but you'd need to remember to choose the
correct template when composing.

 

[PlaneGuy]

Unfortunately, it seems like Outlook's implementation of multiple accounts
is SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than Outlook Express'. In the little brother version,
if you have a message in account B selected, and selected "Create Mail" then
the message will by default be sent by Account B, even if Account A is
default. Outlook, will default to Account A, and only an explicit selection
of Account B will be used.

Similarly, I have multiple email accounts set up (3xIMAP). No matter which
account I select to send the message from, the "Sent Message" gets saved in
the same folder - "Personal Folders"|"Sent Items". Outlook Express is smart
enough to know to save an email sent from Account B in Account B's Sent
Items folder - why can't the paid product do the same?

 

[Gordon]

Unfortunately, it seems like Outlook's implementation of multiple accounts
is SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than Outlook Express'. In the little brother
version, if you have a message in account B selected, and selected "Create
Mail" then the message will by default be sent by Account B, even if
Account A is default. Outlook, will default to Account A, and only an
explicit selection of Account B will be used.

Ah - you are obviously using Identities for your separate accounts then?

Similarly, I have multiple email accounts set up (3xIMAP). No matter which
account I select to send the message from, the "Sent Message" gets saved
in the same folder - "Personal Folders"|"Sent Items".

Correct. That's always been the case. If you need to separate sent items
than either set up manually a sent items folder for each account and use a
rule to move the messages after sending, or use separate Outlook profiles
for each account.

Outlook Express is
smart enough to know to save an email sent from Account B in Account B's
Sent Items folder - why can't the paid product do the same?

Well I don't know which version of OE you are using, but AFAIK there is NO
automatic creation of separate "sent item" folders for separate email
accounts UNLESS you use separate Identities. This has been the rule ever
since OE4 AFAICR.

BTW, Outlook Express is NOT a "free" version of Outlook - the two are
totally separate applications aimed at completely different target users.

 

[PlaneGuy]

Nope. I have one identity that has multiple email accounts set up within it
(HTTP and IMAP accounts, though my discussion relates solely to IMAP
accounts. POP accounts may well behave differently).


An explanation of how OE works compared to O2003.

Lets assume I have 2 accounts, IMAP_1 and IMAP_2. This means my (OE) folder
structure will be:
Outlook Express
- Local Folders
---Inbox
--- Outbox
--- Sent Items
---
- IMAP_1
--- Inbox
--- Outbox
--- Sent Items
-IMAP_2
--- Inbox
--- Outbox
--- Sent Items

The equivelent in O2003, will be:
Personal Folders
-Inbox
-Outbox
-Sent Items
IMAP_1
-Inbox
-Outbox
-Sent Items
IMAP_2
-Inbox
-Outbox
-Sent Items


Firstly, we'll start with Replying to a message.

In OE6, I read a message that is sitting in the IMAP_2/Inbox. I hit reply.
The new message box opens, and the message is identified as coming from
IMAP_2. I type my message and hit send. The message will be sent, and will
appear in IMAP_2/Sent Items.

In O2003, I read a message that is sitting in the IMAP_2/Inbox. I hit reply.
The new message box opens, and the message is identified as coming from
IMAP_2. I type my message and hit send. The message will be sent, and will
appear in Personal Folders/Sent Items.

Now, what is the point of having an IMAP account, when the sne item is only
stored locally, and not back to the server?


Now, a typical workflow scenario, including writing a new message:

In OE6, I read a message in IMAP_2. Finish reading that one, I move to the
next message in IMAP_2. This one from Joe Bloggs, asks me to contact Jane
Doe. So, with the message from Joe still in the previe pane, I hit Create
Mail, type my message and hit send. The message will be sent from IMAP_2,
and will be placed into my IMAP_2/Sent Items folder.

In Outlook, I read Joe's message, hit New whilst Joe's message is still in
the preview pane, and type the message to Jane. At this stage I have not
remembered to select "IMAP_2" from the Accounts Drop Down, and hit send. The
message gets sent from IMAP_1 as it is the default account, and then gets
saved to the Personal Folders/Sent Items Folder.

Is this behaviour not TOTALLY counterintuitive. It is certainly different to
how OE6 (and 5 before it) works, as well as different to Thunderbird, and a
few other email clients I have used over the years.

The concept of a default email account to me is wrong in so many ways. I
have a little money making venture that I do at home, as such I have an
email account set up for myname@my_hobby_business.com. I also use the
computer for my social life, and so have (e-mail address removed), and also manage a
community organisation, and so have (e-mail address removed). Why would I ever
want to have an email that I intend to send to a business contact to go out
via my social account - that'll look pretty unprofessional. Aah, so you say
that I create the business account as default. That means that I can be
sending an email to a business group asking them to donate money to a
community organisation, when in fact the email address shows a business
name. Not all of us are perfect, and I am sure quite a few people have
forgotten to select the correct email account from the drop down list.

Why not make OE pop up a message if no account is selected "You have not
selected an account. Do you want to use the default account (account name)
to send this message?"

That is just a stop gap, until a solution that is used in every other email
client that I have ever used, is implemented, where the currently active
account is used as default.

 

[Gordon]

Nope. I have one identity that has multiple email accounts set up within
it (HTTP and IMAP accounts, though my discussion relates solely to IMAP
accounts. POP accounts may well behave differently).

POP account do indeed behave differently. In fact as POP accounts are very
much the norm, you should have stated initially what you were using.

An explanation of how OE works compared to O2003.

Snip

Yes I'm aware of that, again, you failed to mention the type of accounts in
your post.

Firstly, we'll start with Replying to a message.

In OE6, I read a message that is sitting in the IMAP_2/Inbox. I hit reply.
The new message box opens, and the message is identified as coming from
IMAP_2. I type my message and hit send. The message will be sent, and will
appear in IMAP_2/Sent Items.

In O2003, I read a message that is sitting in the IMAP_2/Inbox. I hit
reply. The new message box opens, and the message is identified as coming
from IMAP_2. I type my message and hit send. The message will be sent, and
will appear in Personal Folders/Sent Items.

Now, what is the point of having an IMAP account, when the sne item is
only stored locally, and not back to the server?

All I can say is that Outlook was not originally designed for either IMAP or
POP accounts....

Now, a typical workflow scenario, including writing a new message:

In OE6, I read a message in IMAP_2. Finish reading that one, I move to the
next message in IMAP_2. This one from Joe Bloggs, asks me to contact Jane
Doe. So, with the message from Joe still in the previe pane, I hit Create
Mail, type my message and hit send. The message will be sent from IMAP_2,
and will be placed into my IMAP_2/Sent Items folder.

In Outlook, I read Joe's message, hit New whilst Joe's message is still in
the preview pane, and type the message to Jane. At this stage I have not
remembered to select "IMAP_2" from the Accounts Drop Down, and hit send.
The message gets sent from IMAP_1 as it is the default account, and then
gets saved to the Personal Folders/Sent Items Folder.
Correct


Is this behaviour not TOTALLY counterintuitive. It is certainly different
to how OE6 (and 5 before it) works, as well as different to Thunderbird,
and a few other email clients I have used over the years.

Again, the target users of Outlook (and still the vast majority of users)
are in Corporations connected to Exchange Server and who don't have more
than one account, certainly not IMAP or HTTPS or POP3.

The concept of a default email account to me is wrong in so many ways. I
have a little money making venture that I do at home, as such I have an
email account set up for myname@my_hobby_business.com. I also use the
computer for my social life, and so have (e-mail address removed), and also manage
a community organisation, and so have (e-mail address removed). Why would I
ever want to have an email that I intend to send to a business contact to
go out via my social account - that'll look pretty unprofessional.

Then set up separate Outlook Profiles. As I have said above, Outlook is not
DESIGNED primarily for multi-account useage.

 

[PlaneGuy]

Actually I did state in the original post... "Similarly, I have multiple
email accounts set up (3xIMAP). "

But anyway, on the argument that Outlook was not designed for multiple
accounts - that is the reason why the functionallity is less than adequate,
but it shouldn't preclude MS from improving the functionallity.

Certainly in the corporate environment that I work in, most people only have
one account linked to an Exchange server. However quite a few have access to
one or more IMAP accounts, and they share my frustrations with teh
implementation.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Unfortunately, it seems like Outlook's implementation of multiple
accounts is SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than Outlook Express'. In the little
brother version, if you have a message in account B selected, and
selected "Create Mail" then the message will by default be sent by
Account B, even if Account A is default. Outlook, will default to
Account A, and only an explicit selection of Account B will be used.

Outlook behaves the same way. When you reply to or forward a message,
Outlook will use the account with which the original message was received.

Similarly, I have multiple email accounts set up (3xIMAP). No matter
which account I select to send the message from, the "Sent Message"
gets saved in the same folder - "Personal Folders"|"Sent Items".
Outlook Express is smart enough to know to save an email sent from
Account B in Account B's Sent Items folder - why can't the paid
product do the same?

In Outlook, there is only one active "Sent Items" folder and that is the one
in the delivery location. It works that way because the team that wrote
Outlook, most likely a completely different team than the one that wrote
Outlook Express, wanted it to work that way. My understanding is that
Outlook 2007 will provide a better IMAP experience and that you can have
PSTs associated with accounts so rules won't be necessary to sort messages
into PSTs based on receiving or sending account.