Outlook is a versatile, flexible platform that will allow you to streamline your office communications with very little hassle. If you are new to Outlook and are just now learning its most basic functions, even something as simple as replying to a group email can be quite confusing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you may make the mistake of forwarding a private response to everyone on the original email list. Following is everything you need to know about the Outlook reply all function including how to use it to forward attachments.
When Replying To Everyone Is Necessary
You may be the recipient of an email message that has been sent out to an entire group. This could be everyone in the company, everyone in your department or on your committee, or simply a select number of people who are privy to the information that is being sent. In the event that you want to keep everyone within the recipient list up to date with your response, the Outlook Reply All function is the one that you would choose.
When you use this function, the response that you submit will be routed to everyone indiscriminately. However, if you prefer to only update or respond to just one or two people on the list, you have the option of customizing your recipient list by hitting merely reply, and then adding additional recipients manually or via the CC function.
Common Mistakes
There are certain responses that you may not want to make available to everyone in the original recipient. For instance, you might receive a group message from the Human Resources department in your company pertaining to personal benefits. If you intend to update HR about your personal dental or health insurance plan, your life insurance plan, or anything that is specific to you personally, it is not necessary to disburse your response to all original recipients. In this event, you can merely click reply to ensure that your response is only being sent to HR.
When people do not know how to use these functions correctly, it can become frustrating and even uncomfortable to other recipients. Private information can be inadvertently shared, and numerous individuals can have extra and unnecessary messages to preview and deal with. Another way to reply to just a select number of people is by using the forwarding function. This is under the same drop-down menu as the reply and the reply to everyone function. By forwarding a message, you can enter the primary recipient manually, and can add other recipients as you deem fit.
Responding To Everyone With An Attachment
It is vital to note that attachments will not automatically resend when you use this particular function. To incorporate the same attachment or a revised attachment into your rely email, simply right click on the attachment and then use “Select All”. Once these have been selected, you can choose “Copy”. This will ensure that these secondary documents are available for viewing when your response is submitted.