Catherine said:
Hi,
Is it possible to have the automatic formatting in blue when receiving an
email in BCC
I now how to set it up when it is only sent to me, and when I am in CC, but
I don't know if I can do it for the BCC.
I am using Outlook 2003
Thanks,
Catherine
You cannot test on a header that doesn't exist. There is no Bcc header
in any e-mail that you receive, so you can't test on it. You CAN test
on the absence of your e-mail in both the To/Cc headers.
Most likely you'll want to define a rule that would do what you want if
there had been a clause to check on the Bcc header. Then add an
exception clause that checks if you are NOT in the To/Cc headers. For
example, if you wanted to move all e-mails that arrive where you are not
in the To/Cc headers (which meant you *might* have been in a Bcc
header), use a rule like:
After receiving messsage
Move to <other> folder
except if you are in To/Cc headers
[stop processing]
If you are in the To/Cc headers then your e-mail does not get moved. If
you are not in those headers, the e-mail gets moved. However, not being
in the To/Cc headers doesn't mean the sender put you in a Bcc field.
When you send e-mail, your client compiles an aggregate list of
recipients from the To, Cc, and Bcc fields in its GUI. When it sends
the e-mail to your SMTP mail host, it sends a RCPT-TO command for each
recipient in the list. It then follows with a single DATA command to
send your e-mail. That data will not include a copy of the Bcc field.
This is the typical operation for e-mail clients. However, the To and
Cc fields are *data* that the user, their e-mail client, or list/bulk
server can put anything they want in those headers. They are data. The
RCPT-TO commands tell the mail server who are the recipient. This list
of RCPT-TO commands may not even match up with the strings in the To/Cc
fields. For example, a listserver sending out a newsletter maintains a
list of recipients. The author sends a new message to the listserver to
have it get sent out. The listserver doesn't care what is inside the
message, and that includes the To and Cc header, because it's all just
the data for the message, not the list of recipient. The listserver
takes that message and sends a copy of it to each person in a file of
recipients that was stored on that listserver. This file isn't tied to
the e-mail. It reads the file and sends a RCPT-TO command for each
recipient listed in that file. It then takes the data (the message
which includes any headers, like To and Cc, and body) and sends a copy
in the DATA command. The mail server then takes the list of RCPT-TO
commands that it got and the one DATA command to send a copy of that
data to each recipient. The recipient never gets to see that list of
RCPT-TO commands. That was communications between the client and mail
server and not included in the message.
So it is quite possible for you to get an e-mail where you are not
listed in the To or Cc headers but no Bcc field was ever used. You
can't test on the Bcc header because there isn't one in the copy of the
e-mail that you received. All you can do is test for the absence of
your e-mail address in the To and Cc headers. However, spammers for
example can put whatever bogus strings they want in any header that was
sent in the DATA command for your message content. So the RCPT-TO
commands used to send an e-mail might not match up with the To and Cc
headers in the received e-mail.
