Blog

Prevent Forwarding, Replying or Reply-All in Outlook

About a month ago I wrote a post that detailed how to prevent attendees from forwarding your Outlook meetings to other people.

Since then I’ve expanded upon it slightly on my own computer: in addition to the option to prevent meetings from being forwarded, I’ve added similar buttons to the new email toolbar that can prevent forwarding, replying or replies to all.

Preventing people from hittingĀ ā€œreply allā€ is sometimes a great tactic if you’re sending an email to particularly large group and you don’t want everybody to get caught up in any follow-up. By contrast, preventing replies (thus forcing people to use ā€œreply allā€ instead) is great if you want the opposite, and for everyone to be kept in the loop.

My previous post details the process of setting all this up, but below is the code for the four macros. The first disables forwarding, the second disables replies, the third disables reply all and the final re-enables all response options. By default, nothing is disabled on new items unless you hit the relevant button to run the macro.

Enjoy!

Sub DisableForwarding()
    ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Forward").Enabled = False
    X = MsgBox("Forwarding of this item has been disabled", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub

Sub DisableReply()
    ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply").Enabled = False
    X = MsgBox("Replies to this item have been disabled", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub

Sub DisableReplyAll()
    ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply to All").Enabled = False
    X = MsgBox("Reply All has been disabled for this item", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub

Sub EnableAllResponses()
    ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Forward").Enabled = True
    ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply").Enabled = True
    ActiveInspector.CurrentItem.Actions("Reply to All").Enabled = True
    X = MsgBox("Forwarding, Replies and Reply All have been enabled for this item", vbInformation, "Forwarding Disabled")
End Sub
Shrapnel

Late Night Links – Sunday June 14th, 2015

It’s that time of the week again! It’s been an especially busy weekend, so I hope you’re all suitably appreciative that I’m taking the time to put this together.

And we’re done! Have a good week all, see you next week.

Blog

Project Management Proverbs

It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged. Work has been especially busy for the past month or so, and as my calendar gets squeezed from every direction the first thing to disappear from it is the time to post here.

That’s unfortunate, and I must get better at it.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I came across a post elsewhere about project management proverbs, and some of them are certainly worth sharing.

One in particular caught my eye because my boss MattĀ recently welcomed his new son Jude to the world. I know that toward the end of his wife’s pregnancy he was getting anxious, as I’m sure any expected father would, and they wanted the birth to be sooner rather than later.

It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. The project management proverb I read reminds us that, despite conventional project management wisdom, the same result cannot be achieved in one month simply by impregnating nine women.

Other notable points:

  • The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.
  • A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected. A well planned project only twice as long as expected.
  • The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job.
  • If you’re six months late on a milestone due next week but nevertheless really believe you can make it, you’re a project manager.

More here!

Shrapnel

Late Night Links – Sunday June 7th, 2015

The weekend is almost over, which is sad. On the plus side, that means it’s late night links time! Yay!

And we’re done for another week folks! Until next time, then. Have a good one.