Suggested enhancement or plug-in feature for "Reply" and "Reply All"
To developers of reply-handling add-ons:- It would be useful to be able to force "Reply All" sometimes. In my work a whole team need the information from a client not just the person at the "Reply to" address. Clients don't always realize this even when it is spelled out for them in the body of the message. And sometimes I forward these messages to colleagues who should been included who then reply to them ...to me.
It would also be useful to have the option of "Repy All (but not cc's)". (I know this can be done by deleting all the CC'd addresses in the compose window, but still anything which reduces clicks helps.) For example this would work well in a conference setting where an email has been sent to all presenters and organizers (in the "To" address box) as well as all participants (CC'd). Participants could reply to organizers and presenters without having to know exactly which person was best placed to handle their enquiry, and without filling the inboxes of the other participants. Cheers Ian
All Replies (4)
Reply All Ctrl+Shift+R There is an icon you can put on the main toolbar for reply all, until the give us back customization of the message toolbar that is the only option. It suits me because I use the main toolbar exclusively and an addon to hide most of the message header.
I have nothing for you with regard not including the CC'ed group.
Thanks Matt, but the features I would like are not part of "Reply All". Someone replying to an email which I have sent and which has multiple addressees in the "To" box has a choice of using "Reply" or "Reply all". I would like to be able to prompt them to use "Reply All" even when they select "Reply". Something along the lines of a dialog box which says "The sender of this message would like you to reply to all recipients. Click OK to use "Reply All" instead". This would have to be a property of the message which I add when I write it. This might be beyond the possible properties of an email message! Cheers Ian
That's quite a far-fetched solution to a simple directive to your clients to use the Reply All option. If they learned how to use email, then they can learn to use Reply All, irrespective of the email client they use.
Sorry Stans, my "clients" are all teachers. They cover a wide range of specialties and a wide range of familiarity with their email clients. They are also very time poor and often just hit "Reply", knock out a line or two and hit send. As a result I have email chains where the current topic bears no resemblance to the original (and still in use) Subject. Three colleagues and I manage a radio telescope for students. We each have our own skills and our own working times. A quick, sometimes urgent, request from a teacher occasionally gets missed because the addressee is out of the office, out of range of the net or just plain asleep. And sometimes even if the message is seen immediately it has to be forwarded to the right team member. We always ask them to use "Reply All" but it is never guaranteed. A method of forcing it would help. I realize that I am asking for the ability of my email client to force another, possibly different, email client to respond to a command in a way that suits me, not the recipient of the email. Alternatively, a plug-in for Thunderbird which launched the dialog box (above, in my reply to Matt) for every use of the "Reply" command would give some teachers the option. I am imagining that a developer with the level of understanding to do this could also make the second feature an option as well. I have no idea of whether any of this is even possible! Thanks any way Stans. Cheers Ian