Sven Guckes ©1995-2003 | Latest change: Thu Dec 11 06:00:00 CET 2003 |
Situation: You send an email from address A to someone [S], but you want S to send his reply to your other address B.
[You] A ---> S [Someone] ---> B [You]
The most natural way to do this is to tell the recipient to send his reply to that other address B. This is fine if you do it *once*, however, if you have to do it *every* time then this calls for an easier solution.
And there are several reasons why this can fail:
Make use of the Reply-To header line!
Put the other address B into the mail header within a "Reply-To" line - like this:
Reply-To: Sven Guckes <reply-to-example@guckes.net>
Now the recipient's mailer will pick up that address automatically:
To: Sven Guckes <reply-to-example@guckes.net>
All the recipient has to do for this to happen is to hit the usual key for "reply". No extra keys to type, no typos possible, no extra notes to send in the message. Simple! :-)
CAUTION: Some mail program do not seem to pick up the reply-to address. These programs are definitely *broken*, so it will not work with them. All mail programs however are required to follow a standard, and this standard specifies the Reply-To line and how it works. Every mailer has to comply to these standards. A mail program that does not follow this standard is broken! Please do not use broken mailers!
Using someone else's mailer. Sometimes you might find yourself in an enviroment where you just want to send an email using someone else's mailer. of course you do not want to change his setup - but you want the answer at your own address. in this case you would use the Reply-To: line to redirect the reply.
Special address. You might be using an address for sending mails out *only*, for example for a newsletter. Replies are more easily detected when sent to a special address. So set that special address into the Reply-To: line!
From: The Newsletter Guy <newsguy@company.com> To: Company Newsletter <newsletter@company.com> Reply-To: Newsletter Editor <newseditor@company.com>
A Reply-To: line is often useful when you move from one address to another. Here is an example of such an email which makes use of the Reply-To: header:
From: me <current-address> To: someone <elsewhere> Reply-To: me <new-address> Hi! I have a new email address! It is "<new-address>" starting next month. So please update the mail alias that you may have for me from address <current-address> to my new address <new-address>. By the way, this mail has an additional header line ("Reply-To:") so that a reply to this mail should be addressed to my new account. greetings from me
There are some subtle things to look out for:
Reply-To: FirstName LastName <valid.address>