How many times have you sent an email and did not want to save it? I write dozens of emails a day that do not need to be saved. Examples include “thanks” emails or “got it” emails. Not keeping these less important emails helps keep your email account under its size quota, and makes mailbox management easier for you. Fortunately for everyone, in Outlook 2007 and 2010, you can add a check box to your Quick Access Toolbar providing the option of not saving an email after you send it.
1. Create a new mail message. In the mail message, click on the Options tab, then the Save Sent Item drop-down box to see the Do Not Save option.
2. In the menu, right-click on the Do Not Save option. In the new menu, click on Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
3. A Do Not Save check box option should be in the Quick Access Toolbar of your message.
Now, whenever you wish to send an email without saving it, just check the check box next to Do Not Save before you press the Send button. The email message will be sent without a copy being saved in your Sent Items folder.
Be careful with this option. By not keeping a copy in your Sent Items folder, the only record of you sending the email is whether the recipient received it. If you think there might be a dispute over whether the email is sent, you will want to avoid the Do Not Save option. Examples include asking your boss for vacation, approving overtime, or whether she signs off on a project. If in doubt, it is always best to keep a copy of a sent email, just in case you need to reference it later.
This post is awesome! I can’t believe no one has commented about it’s sheer awesomeness.
I agree, this post is awesome! Nice screen caps.
Thanks for this post, it’s great. Would You know perhaps if the same can be done in earlier version of outlook (office 2003), that is putting the ‘don’t save’ check box in the menu of mail dispatch? Now one has to get to options to define that each time, and that means at least three clicks more to finish. A lot of time if You do that a lot.
upgrading to 2007 or 2010 not possible yet
kind regards,
Mart
Mart,
I have not had Outlook 2003 for several years, so this is my best guess.
1. Create a new email message.
2. In the new message’s window, click the ‘Tools’ menu, then click on ‘Customize’.
3. In the ‘Customize’ window, click on the ‘Commands’ tab.
4. Here’s where I’m fuzzy on what to do. I think you would click on ‘View’ in the left column to see the commands available. In the right-side, look for either ‘Options’ or ‘Save sent message to’. If ‘Options’ is a menu, then the ‘Save sent message to’ option might be underneath that.
5. Drag the appropriate command to one of the toolbars in your new message. The appropriate command will probably be something akin to ‘Save sent message to’.
If I get a hold of a computer with Outlook 2003, I’ll update this with better instructions. Good luck!
Ben
I agree, good post. However there should be a simpler option.. like there is one in Lotus Notes > Prompt to save while sending. Simples.
I agree, so if you know anyone at Microsoft, please ask them to include this in the next version of Office!
Thanks for this tip. Something everyone can use to help combat Outlook mailbox bloat. One weird quirk that I ran into with this was that I found it impossible to uncheck the “Do Not Save” checkbox once I checked it for an e-mail. The only work-around seems to be to copy everything into a new e-mail and then leave “Do Not Save” unchecked in the new e-mail. This is on Office 2007 SP2, and apparently others have experienced this same problem. (See article at link below.)
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-customize/problem-with-do-not-save-on-quick-access-toolbar/4cae0794-fb94-4843-83bf-a4328d451d98
Thanks for the link, Ted! That’s a big help to everyone who wants to use this feature.
hi … i am a current user of outlook 2010.
the thing is … i have been using the ” DO NOT SAVE ” for quite sometimes .. but i did noticed one strange thing … that is ..
when you figured that you wish to save the sent item … and you un-click the check box … somehow, the mail wouldn’t be saved at all … it will still be ” checked ” somehow …
can anyone explain this ?
SJ,
Thank you for your comment! It seems some people ran in to this same problem in Outlook 2007. The solution was to:
1. In the email message, go to the ‘Options’ tab.
2. Click the drop-down box for ‘Save Sent Items To’, and choose ‘Use Default Folder’.
That is the longer work-around for this issue. Please let us know if that worked or not.
Ben
I have outlook 2010 but there is no such bar at the top. To not save a reply I have to go to “Options” and then “more options” and then click on “Do not save this reply”. Ridiculous! Why is that so complicated?? Didn’t you used to be able to make a setting for every reply email that would ask you if you wanted to save it? Is it really now all or nothing unless you take these extra steps? This seems like such an easy fix. has Microsoft said anything about this issue?
Thanks for the post; much easier.
Having said, I would prefer it if Microsoft make it simpler by allowing user to press the ‘Ctrl’ key when clicking ‘Send’ in the same we press ‘Ctrl’ and when we want to permanently delete a file.
Samer, thank you for the comment. I agree – a built-in keyboard shortcut makes a nice, neat way to achieve this.
I have found what I think is a better solution. If you are in Outlook 2010 (doesn’t seem to work in 2007) you can create some code as follows:
1. enable the ‘developer’ menu; File>Options>Customise Ribbon, then check the ‘developer’ tab on the right side of the screen.
2. in the ‘Developer’ tab, select the ‘Visual Basic’ button
3. Expand ‘Microsoft Outlook Objects’ and select ‘ThisOutlookSession’
4. In the window that appears, paste the following code:
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim lsMessage As String
lsMessage = “Do you want to keep a copy of this email?”
Item.DeleteAfterSubmit = Not (MsgBox(lsMessage, vbYesNo) = vbYes)
End Sub
5. Save, then close the VBA editor.
6. Now whenever you send an email it will pop a message box, if you select ‘no’ it will not save the email to the ‘sent’ box.
thanks, big help.
This looks cool, Ed–I’m getting an error message, though (“Compile error: Syntax error”), and it opens VBA editor with first line of code highlighted–was I meant to edit it?:
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
THIS IS GREAT!! Thanks for the tip; you are a real timesaver. Agree it should be a toolbar option.