Ever had the experience of sending an important e-mail message and then spending days wondering whether the recipient ever saw it? Since not everyone responds to e-mail immediately, it's hard to know whether your message hit the mark.

Outlook solves this problem by giving you a way to track the messages you send, so that you know when they're delivered and (with the recipient's permission) when they're opened. And when it's you on the receiving end, you can choose when to have Outlook notify senders that you've opened their messages, and when to keep that information to yourself. Watch the demo to see how it's done.

Why you may not see receipts or the tracking tab

• If you don't receive receipts, the recipient may have declined to send one, or the recipient’s server may not support sending receipts for privacy and security reasons.
• If you don't see the Tracking tab, the server may not have processed the receipts yet. This sometimes involves a lag time.
• If a receipt isn't appearing on the Tracking tab even though the receipt is in the Inbox, either you haven't opened the read receipt message yet, or the sender edited the receipt message.

How to do it (text version):

• Read receipts and the people who need them
• About tracking when messages are delivered or read
• Receive notifications when messages are delivered or read
• Change automatic response to read receipts

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