[thelist] Outlook feature that can bite back

[Richard Harb]

While I also do _not_ like that feature I know plenty of people who
use the Outlook client, or more precicely their Exchange Server
mailbox, as some sort of Document management system - without the
document management system features of course.

Meaning they usually open a received attachment and edit it right away
(MS office documents, as other applications usually aren't aware that
the original is supposed to get stuffed back), saving the result into
the email they received - and sometimes they even forward/redirect
that email.

>From that point of view it's really comfortable: open, edit, forward -
but a nightmare if the main storage for documents is supposed to be on
some folder in the filesystem with all the other stuff.

It tends to get very messy if the users show no discipline regarding
where to save their sh**.

I guess I'm getting off topic here. Just wanted to point out that
questionable feature though ...

Richard


Thursday, May 6, 2004, 5:59:09 PM, you wrote:

> Being a user who has avoided any microsoft mail client since the 
> beginning of time (I still remember paying $10.00 p/Mb for my mail), I
> have little experience with the internal features of Outlook.

> Am I correct that there is a feature that allows you to modify the 
> contents of an email that you have received?  If so, is it a common 
> practise to use this feature?

> The reason I ask is that I recently received an email from someone who
> was responding to a job application that I had sent via email.  The 
> sender did not take the time to check the content prior to sending and
> it appears that she had changed the "subject" of my original email. 
> What caught my eye was the contents:

> Subject: gOOD CANDIDATE BUT LIVES IN [%myhometown%] SEEK IT: Application

> She had obviously tried to use the email's subject as a method of 
> keeping notes.  As more and more people are using email as a legal 
> document, can anyone explain an advantage to this feature of modifying
> an email *after* it has been recieved from another party?

> -- 
> Michael Pemberton
> evolt at mpember.net.au