I just received an excellent tip on how to avoid accidentally sending an email reply in Outlook. The tip is thanks to Darek, who attended Better Business Writing last week.
Here is the tip: When you are writing an email reply, type some gibberish (nonsensical information) in the CC line–something like this: ;ljds;lfjad;fj. With the gibberish there, Outlook will not send the message. It will instead provide an error message, like this:
Microsoft Office Outlook does not recognize “;ljds;lfjad;fj”.
Using this method, you will never send an email accidentally. You will never again send an incomplete, unedited, sloppy, or embarrassing message by mistake. When you have edited, spellchecked, and proofread the message, simply remove the gibberish and click SEND. Success! Professionalism! A job well done!
I’ve tried Darek’s method, and it works perfectly. Thanks, Darek! By sharing this tip, you have made the world a happier place, with far fewer episodes of miscommunication.