Understand Email Part Two: Reply, Forward, Redirect

Understand Email Part Two: Reply, Forward, Redirect
Mac Tip #297/11-July-2007

After Ann sends an email directly to Brian, Brian can do several things. Alongside reading and filing or deleting, or just not reading in the first place, Brian could choose to Reply, Forward or even Redirect.

Reply or Reply All

When Brian chooses to Reply his response will go back to Ann. If Ann also sent the message at the same time to Chris, then Chris may also get Brian’s reply.

This only applies if Chris’s email address was included in the To, Cc or Bcc fields. It doesn’t apply if Ann sent the message to Brian and then later sent it again, but put in Chris’s email address instead of Brian’s.

When you Reply to a message always check before clicking the Send button to see exactly who will receive your response. Some email software lets you choose between Reply and Reply to All.

Forward

If Brian feels Ann’s message would also interest Denny, then Brian may Forward the message. This usually adds quote markers at the start of each line, to show that the words have been ‘quoted’ — they weren’t Brian’s words, Brian was just passing them on.

If Denny replies, that response goes back to Brian.

Redirect

Brian may act as a secretary to an organisation, receiving all emails to his address, but sending them along to other people for action. In that case he would Redirect Ann’s messages to Denny or Eve, Frances etc.

Redirect doesn’t add quote markers to each line, because the implication is that the message ended up at the wrong address and is now finding its way to the correct address. Brian isn’t quoting Ann’s words, simply sending them along to a more appropriate recipient.

The huge difference is what happens when Denny chooses to reply. If the message has been redirected the response goes back to Ann, the sender, not Brian, who merely passed the message on.

Whether you’re Replying, Forwarding or Redirecting a message you’ll find the commands in a menu, or maybe on a toolbar. In Apple’s Mail.app, for example, select a message then look in the Message menu for actions you can take.