Include a read receipt on your messages (Outlook 2000/2002/2003/2007)

There are many reasons why you may want to know if someone has opened an email that you've sent. Maybe it has time-sensitive material in it and you need to verify when the person viewed it, or maybe you're just trying to make lunch plans and want to know if the recipient has read your email. It's easy to add a read receipt to your outgoing emails so you're notified when the recipient opens it.

To do so, first compose a message. Click the Options button on the Standard toolbar in the message window to display the Message Options dialog box. (In Outlook 2007, display the Message Options dialog box by going to the Message tab and clicking the icon in the lower-right corner of the Options group.) Select the Request A Read Receipt For This Message check box in the tracking options section, and then click Close. It's important to note that this doesn't ensure that you'll receive a read receipt when the recipient opens your email. A recipient's server may be set up to not support read receipts, the recipient can set up his email program to reject the read receipt option, or he can manually answer No when prompted to send a read receipt.