Reply using the Default Account when it should not!?

M

more_info

Hi All,
First query in this forum. I have an account in an IMAP server which
receives emails for a number of different email addresses. I have set up a
single account in Entourage which retrieves the messages in this single
account from the IMAP server (and it does so happily), however; when replying
to those messages, I do not seem to be able to get Entourage to reply to the
address under which it was received.
I have read the posts in the forum that ask similar questions but i would
like to know
i) why Entourage (2004 with 11.2.5) does not do what it is supposed to do
when I leave the "Reply using the default account" Unchecked
ii) how can I get it to work ?
iii) is the only answer the magic script(+schedule) by Barry Wainwright?
Appreciate any help/pointers/hints
thanks in advance
CJ
 
M

Mickey Stevens

Hi All,
First query in this forum. I have an account in an IMAP server which
receives emails for a number of different email addresses. I have set up a
single account in Entourage which retrieves the messages in this single
account from the IMAP server (and it does so happily), however; when replying
to those messages, I do not seem to be able to get Entourage to reply to the
address under which it was received.
I have read the posts in the forum that ask similar questions but i would
like to know
i) why Entourage (2004 with 11.2.5) does not do what it is supposed to do
when I leave the "Reply using the default account" Unchecked
Click to expand...

When that option is unchecked and you reply to a message, the "From" address
will be the e-mail address associated with the account (in Tools > Accounts)
that received the message, regardless of the e-mail address the original
message was sent to.
ii) how can I get it to work ?
Click to expand...

You could create additional "send-only" accounts in Entourage (Tools >
Accounts), with the "Receiving mail" section left blank. Then, when you
reply to a message, you can choose the appropriate address to send from.
 
M

more_info

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your help.
I understand that in the absence of any other accounts in that idenity that
your answer to (i) is absolutely correct, however; with a number of
"send-only" accounts set up, it should be able to pick the correct address to
send from ie I should not have to choose (as you suggest in (ii)) the
appropriate address to send from - which is what I have to do everytime as it
always selects the default account to send from.

CJ
 
M

more_info

Hi there,
I have had a look at the script, unfortunately it will not work for me
for a couple of reasons i) I need to wait for script to run so the sender can
be updated (1 minute is too long - maybe it can be changed !?) but more
importantly (ii) it changes the account as soon as I include a recipient that
is associated with the script - I might not want it to do that.
The functionality I am looking for should be addressed by the 'reply using
the default account' unchecked, for some reason I have not managed to find
why it does not work in Entourage - am I doing something wrong or is there a
fundamental reason why it should not work?
 
B

Barry Wainwright [MVP]

Hi there,
I have had a look at the script, unfortunately it will not work for me
for a couple of reasons i) I need to wait for script to run so the sender can
be updated (1 minute is too long - maybe it can be changed !?)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it cannot be changed, since 1 minute is the lowest valkue
that can be assifgned to a schedule. However, in prcatise it is quite
unusual to hit the reply button, type your answer and hit the send button
before the script fires and resets the sending account - not that it _can't_
be done, just that it happens very rarely.
but more
importantly (ii) it changes the account as soon as I include a recipient that
is associated with the script - I might not want it to do that.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I thought that this was just what you did want to do. My bad. I must
have misunderstood.
The functionality I am looking for should be addressed by the 'reply using
the default account' unchecked, for some reason I have not managed to find
why it does not work in Entourage - am I doing something wrong or is there a
fundamental reason why it should not work?
Click to expand...

It should work - uncheck that box and the reply should take the account that
received the message. Where this falls down is that mail aliases that
forward mail to another account end up being received from an account other
than the one you want to send through. Also, many 'send only' accounts are
just that - they never receive any messages, so an outgoing message will
never be associated with that account unless you manually (or by script) set
it thus.

If you can define what criteria you use to set the account of the outgoing
mail, it should be scriptable (but you will have to fire the script either
manually or by a schedule).
 
M

more_info

Thanks for the information Barry. For clarification, the concern (ii) occurs
when I am replying to a number of recipients which are NOT associated with
the script. As soon as I add an additional recipient which happens to be
associated with the script then the reply account changes - as I mentioned
one may not want this to happen.

To reiterate my situation, I agregate a number of accounts into one IMAP
account (using fetchmail). I then use Entourage to retrieve messages from
that single account. I would like to be able to strictly reply as the
original recipient.
I agree with you that unchecking the 'Reply using the default account'
should work but for some reason it does not. FYI I have no problem at all
with doing this with both Mail.app and Thunderbird.
Thanks again.
 
M

Mickey Stevens

To reiterate my situation, I agregate a number of accounts into one IMAP
account (using fetchmail). I then use Entourage to retrieve messages from
that single account.
Click to expand...

That's the problem.
I would like to be able to strictly reply as the
original recipient.
I agree with you that unchecking the 'Reply using the default account'
should work but for some reason it does not.
Click to expand...

Barry & I explained why that won't work in this case:

Mickey: "When that option is unchecked and you reply to a message, the
"From" address will be the e-mail address associated with the account (in
Tools > Accounts) that received the message, regardless of the e-mail
address the original message was sent to."

Barry: "It should work - uncheck that box and the reply should take the
account that received the message. Where this falls down is that mail
aliases that forward mail to another account end up being received from an
account other than the one you want to send through."

If you uncheck the "Reply using the default account" option, the message
will appear to be "From" the name & address associated with the account (in
Tools > Accounts) that received the message, whether that is the default
account or not. That may OR may not be the address to which the original
message was written to.
 
M

more_info

Thanks for both your answers. I think the crux of the matter (or
misunderstanding on my part) here is as Barry said related to '...the account
that receives the message [in Entourage], nothing to do with what is in the
headers.'. A script that triggers as the message arrives and sets the
account (as described by Barry) is the most appropriate way to resolve this.
Thanks again for your help - As a followup, any particular reason why
Entourage chose to ignore (in this case) the contents of the headers?
 
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