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About this lesson

Learn how to recall a message and how to add a button to the ribbon for faster access to this feature.

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2016, 2019/365.

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Recall a Message.docx
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Quick reference

Recall a Message

Recalling a message is simply reversing the send process and stopping the email delivery.

When to use

Sometimes a message has to be pulled back in order to correct details or stop an announcement. This lesson shows you how to quickly get a message back.

Instructions

Recall a Message

  • Clicked your Sent folder.​​​​​

Recall only works on messages that have been “sent”. So first find the folder that contains the email that was sent out, most likely it is in the Sent Mail folder.

  • Open the message to be recalled.
  • Click the Recall Message button on the Quick Access bar* (above the ribbon).
    ​
  • Confirm the settings and click OK.

          

​Hints & Tips

*To get the button onto the Quick Access bar:

  • Open any “sent” email (because the Quick Access options are different depending on the type of email.)
  • Click the drop down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Bar.

  • ​Choose More Commands.

  • Select Recall This Message and double click it so it appears on the right side list of options.

  • Click OK.

  • ​You should now see the button added to the Quick Access bar.

 

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  • 00:05 We have been in a situation, all of us, where we have sent an email and
  • 00:09 immediately regretted it, if you left off a detail or
  • 00:12 you said too much or something happened.
  • 00:15 Now this doesn't happen often, but when it does,
  • 00:18 you kind of go into a bit of an anxiety attack, maybe that's just me.
  • 00:23 Anyway, regardless, this is the way to recall a message.
  • 00:26 First of all, you can only recall a message if it has been sent
  • 00:30 out of your folder, okay?
  • 00:31 So if I'm on my inbox, I can't recall something.
  • 00:34 I didn't send them, I only receive them.
  • 00:36 I sent things that are in my sent items.
  • 00:38 So I'm going to double-click and open the message that I want to recall.
  • 00:42 So I double-click this message and it pops open.
  • 00:45 Now, keep in mind, I'm panicking a little bit, I'm in a little bit of a hurry.
  • 00:50 But I have to quickly locate the actions and recall this message button.
  • 00:55 Okay, actions, so I'm looking through and I'm looking for actions.
  • 00:59 Well, it's right over here under the move group, so I hit that dropdown arrow and
  • 01:04 behold, there is a Recall This Message.
  • 01:07 How calm are you when you're panicking and you're in a hurry?
  • 01:09 Not too calm.
  • 01:10 So, let's take this a step further, and
  • 01:13 let's put this Recall button on our Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 01:17 So anytime we double-click and open a sent email,
  • 01:20 the Recall button is just hanging out right up here.
  • 01:24 Now, right up here, this is your Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 01:27 These are where you put the buttons that you use a lot.
  • 01:30 So when you hit the dropdown arrow, you might want to put a check mark on any of
  • 01:34 these, but the one I want isn't on that list.
  • 01:37 I'm trying to find recall message, you can see it's not on the list.
  • 01:41 It happens to be under More Commands.
  • 01:43 When I click on the More Commands button,
  • 01:46 what you're going to see is my possible commands, my popular ones on the left and
  • 01:50 my existing buttons on the right that are on that Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 01:54 So I'm going to go ahead and find Recall This Message, there it is, hanging out.
  • 01:59 I can click it once and hit Add, or I can double-click.
  • 02:02 Either way, get it over to the right-hand side.
  • 02:05 Now be careful, a double-click on the left adds some over on the right.
  • 02:08 A double-click on the right takes them away and puts them back over on the left.
  • 02:12 Okay, so be very careful.
  • 02:14 Recall This Message, and then of course, I'm going to hit the OK button, and
  • 02:17 you're going to see a change on my Quick Access bar.
  • 02:19 So okay, click.
  • 02:21 There we go, it just appeared the Recall button.
  • 02:24 So let's play this back.
  • 02:26 I'm going to close this sent file.
  • 02:30 I'm on my sent items, I already sent this email out.
  • 02:33 I'm panicking, no, I forgot this.
  • 02:36 Double-click, opens it and just a very calm click to recall,
  • 02:40 was I sweating was I panicking?
  • 02:42 Was I anxiety ridden because I couldn't find the button?
  • 02:45 No.
  • 02:46 It's hanging out on the Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 02:47 This is great.
  • 02:48 Now of course, you can decide if you want to delete unread copies,
  • 02:52 delete unread copies and replace with new messages, tell me if the recall succeeds.
  • 02:57 Doesn't matter to me.
  • 02:59 I do need to just tell you, first of all, if you are in a corporate environment
  • 03:03 within an intranet, an internal networking then this will work like a charm.
  • 03:09 And if they haven't read the email, you will get it back, it will be recalled.
  • 03:12 If they have read it and opened it, it's pretty much done, okay.
  • 03:17 Keep in mind also, they will receive a message so and so just recalled an email.
  • 03:22 And they're going to be very curious.
  • 03:24 So, regardless just please know that intranet corporate level,
  • 03:28 this works like a charm but they get a message it was recalled.
  • 03:32 Internet that would be me, because I work alone in my own office.
  • 03:35 I can rarely recall things, so my best friend there is just not to
  • 03:41 enter anything into the To: line until I'm absolutely sure that I want to send it.
  • 03:46 All right, that's it.
  • 03:47 Thank you.

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