
close
close
A developer at Microsoft Research named Gavin Smyth in Cambridge, UK, has created a neat, but little-known Outlook add-in utility called NoReplyAll that prevents people from replying to all the recipients of a message or forwarding it. The add-in uses a facility built into Outlook and Exchange that’s more lightweight than Information Rights Management (IRM) and doesn’t require any type of back-end configuration from the IT department.
After installation, it adds a few buttons to the Outlook ribbon that allows a user to control the recipient’s ability to reply to all recipients in your email message, forward it, and so on. The add-in also includes a check for common email errors, such as omitting attachments or subject lines.
Note: Although this feature is handy for people working mostly with email that is internal to the same organization, it does not work for external recipients that are using other email clients. In addition, the recipient may enable or change these settings if they want to, even without the permission of the sender. This means that this type of mechanism is very weak and only partially useful and shouldn’t be used if there is true need to restrict distribution of email messages (for legal reasons, for example).
If you want a mechanism for protecting your emails in a much more secure and robust manner, then use the IRM facilities that Exchange Server offers. As stated above, IRM is a much more robust technology that is integrated with Exchange Server 2010/2013 and Active Directory. It also requires a much more complex setup and configuration. On the other hand, using IRM allows you to prevent an authorized recipient from forwarding, modifying, printing, faxing, saving, cutting, pasting or even taking screen captures of content. In addition, it protects supported attachment file formats and allows you to configure expiration of email messages and attachments so that they can no longer be viewed after the specified period. Microsoft Office applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook can be used to create and consume protected content.
Going back to our article’s focus, the email recipient doesn’t need to have this add-in installed to have reply all disabled. As long as the sender and recipient both have mailboxes in the same Exchange organization, and as longs as the recipient is using the Outlook email client, these settings settings get passed along.
After installing NoReplyAll, you’ll notice extra buttons at the end of the ribbon bar on a new email message window. You may need to increase the window size if you don’t see these buttons.
The NoReplyAll add-in is now featured in Outlook’s ribbon. (Image Credit: Daniel Petri)
NoReplyAll Settings. (Image Credit: Daniel Petri)
NoReplyAll sends a message notifying the user that the action isn’t available for the email item. (Image Credit: Daniel Petri)
advertisment
More from Daniel Petri
advertisment
Petri Newsletters
Whether it’s Security or Cloud Computing, we have the know-how for you. Sign up for our newsletters here.
advertisment
More in Office
M365 Changelog: (Updated) Teams apps designed for Outlook and Office.com available for users in Outlook and Office.com
Mar 31, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft’s New Office.com UI Now Available for All Business and Education Customers
Mar 11, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
M365 Changelog: People centric search rollout update (SharePoint, Office.com)
Mar 10, 2022 | Petri Staff
Most popular on petri
Log in to save content to your profile.
Article saved!
Access saved content from your profile page. View Saved
Join The Conversation
Create a free account today to participate in forum conversations, comment on posts and more.
Copyright ©2019 BWW Media Group