Outlook Reply-To problems.

October 3, 2005 7:51 AM

How can I set up a permanent Reply-To address in Outlook 2003 on an Exchange server?

It seems you can only do this manually for each email, or switch to POP3/SMTP. I did find this plug-in, but I'd rather not pay $20 for the privilege.

posted by MintSauce to computers & internet (4 comments total)

You mean permanent in what way? You want the same reply-to address for everyone? You want the same reply-to address no matter what you put in the From field?

The Default SMTP address is typically your reply-to address in your email, irrespective of what other email address you're authorized to use. If you're sending "on behalf" of another use in the mailbox store, you're specified as the Sender, and the From and Reply-To addresses are the addresses of the person on behalf of which you're sending the email.
posted by thanotopsis at 9:18 AM on October 3, 2005

Here's a little VB macro that will do what you want, I think. Use at your own risk... Although it appears to work for me, I haven't spent a lot of time testing it.

1. Open Outlook.
   
2. Go to the "Tools" menu, choose the "Macro" submenu, and finally "Visual Basic Editor".
   
3. The VB editor opens, and you should see a "Project Explorer" subwindow, probably in the upper left. Expand the folders and find the node that says "ThisOutlookSession". Double click on this node.
   
4. Paste the following code into the large white region. Change [e-mail] to your reply-to email address.
   
   Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Item.ReplyRecipients.Add "[e-mail]"
Item.ReplyRecipients.Item(1).Resolve
Item.Save
End Sub

   
5. In the "File" menu, choose "Save", and then "Close and Return to Microsoft Outlook".
   

posted by blue mustard at 12:42 PM on October 3, 2005

blue mustard, that works great for the session, but not once you close and restart ... is there anyway of making it more permanent?
posted by MintSauce at 4:56 AM on October 4, 2005

Hmm, that's interesting. On my machine it persists through a close and restart. Make sure you save the code by going to the "File" menu and choosing "Save VbaProject.OTM" (step 5).

If you're sure you're saving it, but it still doesn't stick around when you restart Outlook, I'm not sure what's happening.... sorry. I suppose it's possible there is something overwriting the file when you start Outlook. You might be able to prevent this by making the macro file read-only. The macro file is called VbaProject.OTM and can (usually) be found in this directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

After you make the changes and save, find this file, right click it, and check the "Read only" checkbox. It will prevent most applications from changing the file. Again, I'm not sure if this will help, because I'm not sure why the changes aren't sticking around, but it's worth a shot.
posted by blue mustard at 5:54 AM on October 4, 2005