Changing the subject

Ever get frustrated by email messages with vague or generic subject lines? I once had a colleague who would use “From Mary” as the subject line of every email. This wasn’t helpful because, of course, her sender email already told me it was from her – what I wanted to know was what it was about!

It is particularly frustrating if you need to keep these emails for later reference. If you use Outlook however, there is a solution. Did you know you can edit the subject line of received emails? With the email open simply click in the subject line and type the new subject. When you close the email you’ll be asked if you want to save the changes you’ve made. Just click yes and your new subject line is saved. Then you can file the message knowing it will be easy to locate when required.

In some versions of Outlook you can even change the content of received messages and save those changes. I must caution against this in certain professions or circumstances. If you ever need to rely on the email as evidence it may be complicated if you have made changes. In these circumstances it would be good practice to leave the original subject line and add your own to it, rather than replacing it entirely. In the example above I would leave the original and add my specifics as “ From Mary – re client requirements XYZ Co”.