Exchange Messaging Outlook
Volume 4, Number 10

• Education forms get smart
• Why all the fuss about read receipts
• Exchange 2000 RC1

• Thanks to our sponsors
• New Slipstick site features
• New utilities
• Updated utilities

Long-time visitors to Microsoft's web site know that there are lots of great samples there that can help you start customizing your Outlook/Exchange Server installation. The latest batch of forms, designed for use in schools (see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mssampleapps.htm), is really outstanding not just for the usefulness of the forms and the developer concepts they cover, but for the presentation. If you need to document your forms on the company intranet, you can't do better than follow the example set by the Microsoft in Education crew. For each form, you'll see a screen shot, detailed requirements, installation instructions, end-user instructions, how to customize the form, and a description of the tools and techniques used to build the form.

These forms are not just for schools, of course. For example, the questionnaire and quick survey forms can help any organization.

Now that Windows 2000 has been released, Exchange 2000 Server is that much closer to being finished. Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is now available for download and in a four-CD Corporate Preview Program (CPP) kit at a nominal fee. You can order the kit in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish. The download is not available in Japanese. See http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/prodinfo/2000/OrderKit.htm for details.

Exchange 2000 Server RC1 requires Windows 2000 Advanced Server, either the full product or the evaluation edition, which is included in the CPP kit.

At least once a week, I get a message from someone wanting to know how to make sure that they get an accurate read receipt response from the people they send mail to. Forget it. Read receipts are so useless that it's hardly worth including them. Virtually every good mail program (Outlook included, as long as you're working with Internet mail) has a feature to suppress the sending of read receipts. There are even addins that allow you to spoof the receipt process -- avoid sending a receipt when you first read the item, but send one a few days later. Furthermore, since so many people read their mail through Outlook's preview pane, then delete it, there's a good chance that all you'll get is a "deleted without reading" receipt.