How to use Outgoing Email Checker

THIS ADD-IN IS RETIRED AND NO LONGER SUPPORTED

Outgoing Email Checker for Outlook will help you avoid common emailing mistakes. It checks your email messages for the conditions you specify and prompts you to make the necessary corrections before sending. Just create the rules you need and enjoy professional correspondence.

How to start Outgoing Email Checker

To start the tool, click Email Checker on the Ablebits tab in your Outlook:
Start Outgoing Email Checker.

Create a rule from a template

To start creating a rule with a template, click New rule in the Outgoing Email Checker window:
Add a new rule.

Step 1: Create a rule from scratch or use a template

Make sure that the Create a rule from a template option is selected and choose any of the templates available:
Select the necessary template.

Step 2: Choose when to show an alert

If the option selected by default in Step 2 is exactly what you need, click the corresponding link in the Rule description area at the bottom of the window to specify your criteria:
Follow the link to specify criteria.

When you're done, click Next.

Step 3: Choose what emails to check

Make sure that the option selected by default in Step 3 suits your needs. Then, if required, decide on the criteria using the corresponding link in the Rule description area at the bottom of the window:
Follow the link to specify criteria.

Click Next.

Step 4: Finish setting up the rule

Name your rule:
The rule is almost ready.

Click Finish and then click OK.

From now on, if the rule conditions are met, you'll receive an alert. This is how it might look:
The Outgoing Email Checker reminder

Create a rule from scratch

In the Outgoing Email Checker window, click New rule:
Add a new rule.

Step 1: Create a rule from scratch or use a template

Select the Create a rule from scratch option:
The Create a rule from scratch option

Then click Next.

Step 2: Choose when to show an alert

Decide when you need to get alerts, select the corresponding option, and use the link in the Rule description area at the bottom of the window to add the necessary criteria if such a link is available:
Alert criteria

Tip. By selecting a checkbox in the Invert column, you'll get the opposite statement. For example, Alert me if the subject or body contains certain words will turn into Alert me if the subject or body doesn't contain certain words.

Click Next.

Step 3: Choose what emails to check

In this step, you can either specify the cases when the rule you're creating must be applied or make the rule work for all the outgoing messages by selecting the corresponding option:
The Apply the rule for all outgoing messages option is selected.

Click Next.

Step 4: Finish setting up the rule

You're nearly done. Just name the rule you've created and click Finish:
Name the newly created rule.

Then click OK.

How to change a rule

To edit a rule, select it in the Outgoing Email Checker window and click Change rule:
Edit your rule.

You can also start editing a rule by double-clicking it.

To save the changes you've made, click OK.

How to enable or disable a rule

If you want to disable a rule, clear the checkbox next to it in the Outgoing Email Checker window:
The checkbox next to a rule is not selected.

Click OK to save the changes.

To enable the rule, select the checkbox again.

How to use the Export and Import Rules options

If you want to use your Outgoing Email Checker rules together with your colleagues, you might find it helpful to export and import rules.

In the Outgoing Email Checker window, click Options:
Options in the Outgoing Email Checker window

To export rules, click the Export rules button:
The Export rules button

Then select location for the rules using the Windows Explorer window that will show up.

To import rules to another PC, click the Import rules button:
The Import rules button

How to enable Alert to Reply All

You'll appreciate this feature if you often click Reply instead of Reply All in Outlook. The tool can check if there are several recipients and you'll get a warning message if you forget to include them all in your reply:
This is a warning message.

To enable such an alert, click Alert to Reply All on the Ablebits tab in your Outlook:
Alert to Reply All on the Outlook ribbon

To stop getting these alerts, click Alert to Reply All again.

How to enable Prevent Reply All

Unintentional clicking Reply All when responding to a multi-recipient message can be really annoying. To avoid such a situation, use the Prevent Reply All feature and get a warning message each time you click Reply All:
This is how a warning message looks like.

To start getting such alerts, click Prevent Reply All on the Ablebits tab in your Outlook:
Prevent Reply All on the Outlook ribbon

To disable the feature, click Prevent Reply All again.

Responses

Phil says:
January 22, 2021 at 8:50 pm

Is it possible to check for a word or phrase in the subject line using regular expressions or wildcards? For example I want to check for Job #1234m in the subject where 1234 could be any set of four digits, and the 'm' at the end is optional.

Mary Trifuntova (Ablebits Team) says:
January 23, 2021 at 3:30 pm

Hello Phil,

Thank you for your question. You may set the rule to check that the subject or body contains "Job #" and the tool will fire a pop-up every time there is no "Job #" in your subject line. It doesn't matter what text goes before or after "Job #", the tool will check for this combination only.

For example, if there is "Job #123", there will be no notification but if your subject is "Job 1234", you'll be warned. I think you got the idea :)

Outgoing Email Checker is available as a part of our Add-ins Collection for Outlook that you can install in a trial mode and check how the tools work. Here is the direct download link for you: https://www.ablebits.com/files/get.php?addin=ol-collection

Elena says:
April 26, 2020 at 3:01 pm

Hello,

Coul you please inform me how can I prevent to send CC external emails even if one of the CC address is from my company but there is also an yahoo address ?
For example i want to send emails only to my company : X.com
If I will add this address : aaa@X.com in CC but also bbb@yahoocom in CC , i dont want that email to go . Because even if I have an address from my company , it is also an yahoo address.

How can i set this , please ?

Thank you,
Elena

Mary Trifuntova (Ablebits Team) says:
April 26, 2020 at 5:40 pm

Hello Elena,

Thank you for contacting us. We have just replied to your original request via email, please check your Inbox. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to address them to support@ablebits.com. Thank you.

Martin says:
December 13, 2019 at 8:54 am

Hey folks,

is there a possible rule that checks if i am attaching a .docx Document?

I usually draft letters (lawyer) in word and send the pdf-Version. Unfortunately it sometimes happened to me in the past that i've sent the word-file instead of its pdf-version. Which is veeeery bad when you're negiotiating with your client's opponent since people could "undo" through your files and get a glimpse of your underlying thoughts and changes.

I want to make sure to be asked if i really want to send attachments of certain file types.

Thanks in advance

Katerina Bespalaya (Ablebits Team) says:
December 13, 2019 at 11:58 am

Hello Martin,

Please try to create a rule for the add-in to check that attachment name doesn't contain '.docx'. Each time you attach a .docx file to an outgoing message, the add-in will give you a notification message that there is a Word file with this extension in the attachments. I hope this will work for you.

Arindam Sarkar says:
August 6, 2019 at 11:34 am

How to enable maker checker in Ms Outlook. If maker prepares and send the email it will go to the checker to release / reject the email before sending.

Mary Trifuntova (Ablebits Team) says:
August 6, 2019 at 2:35 pm

Hello Arindam,
Thank you for contacting us.

If you are interested in our Outgoing Email Checker, it is available as a part of Add-ins Collection for Outlook. You can install it in a trial mode and check how Outgoing Email Checker and other 7 tools work: https://www.ablebits.com/files/get.php?addin=ol-collection&f=free-trial

Please find the detailed instructions on how to set rules in Outgoing Email Checker on its help page.

Feel free to contact me again if you have any other questions.

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