Control Outlook Message Delivery

There are situations where you want to compose a message now and send it later.

There are also situations where you want a message to expire at a certain time. Outlook 2007 and earlier versions give you the ability to do those things, and this page will tell you how to make it happen.

Both of these abilities, along with several other advanced message options, are available through the Message Options dialog box.

The Message Options dialog box offers several advanced abilities.

As you can see, you can set a date and time in the Do not deliver before boxes to control when Outlook sends a message, and set a date and time in the Expires after boxes for the message to expire. Using these options is straightforward, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind before you do:

If you are not using Outlook with an Exchange server, you may not be able to use these features.

If the recipient's e-mail program doesn't download a message before it expires, the message never appears in the recipient's Inbox.

If the recipient's e-mail program does download a message before it expires, they will be able to read it normally. After that, the message Subject will appear in the Inbox with a line through it to indicate that it has expired, but it will still be readable.

To Control Message Delivery

Follow this procedure to adjust the delivery time and expiration time of a message. In Step 2, be sure to use the appropriate instructions for your version of Outlook.

Open a new message window.

For Outlook 2007 users: In the Ribbon, click Options, then Delivery Options (in the More Options panel). This opens the Message Options dialog box. For users of other versions of Outlook, in the toolbar, click Options. This opens the Message Options dialog box.

To delay delivery, set the Do not deliver before checkbox, then enter a date and time in the boxes to the right.

To enter an expiration date and time, set the Expires after checkbox, then enter a date and time in the boxes to the right.

Click Close, then send your message normally.

Note: This page was inspired by Nathan Weinberg's, HOW TO: Delay Emails In Outlook

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