Outlook 2007 and Mark as Junk
Today, for the first time ever, I ran Outlook 2007. Up 'til now I've used many different mail clients (xmail on unix, Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, Windows Mail on Vista, Windows Live Mail desktop, Thunderbird, Outlook Express) but I've never used Outlook proper.
I'll save more detailed thoughts for a later post, but there's one thing I had to blog about straight away:
Where the hell is the "Mark as Junk" button?
If Outlook incorrectly flags a legitimate email as spam, and moves it to the "Junk E-mail" folder, I can right-click on the message and select "Junk E-mail|Mark as Not Junk..." to tell Outlook that it wasn't spam. However, if a spam message wasn't caught by Outlook's spam filter, there's no way (that I can find) to quickly flag it as junk! I can manually drag it to the "Junk E-mail" folder, but I'm not sure if that's doing anything in terms of "training" Outlook's spam filter.
Windows Live Mail desktop has a "Junk" button as a first-class citizen right next to the "Delete" button. Where is it in Outlook 2007?
Update: I don't want to sound like a negative-nancy here or anything, but: No newsgroups??? What. The. Hell? Apparently the official word from the Outlook team is that they don't include support for usenet news in Outlook because they don't want to duplicate features already available in the free Outlook Express product. Uh ... guys? You do realise that Outlook Express does email too? What, it's ok to duplicate some features but not others? WTF???
Comments
# Andrew
28/03/2007 12:15 PM
Try my Outlook Add-In - SPAM KILLER
I spent 2 years for finding solutiuon from spam emails. Only one way to make a right decision is to look at incomong email.
I invented a technology of recognition and comparison of graphical attachments and text documents in emails. My software like a human filters spam incredibly accurate in comparison with antispam software from well-known companies or antispam filters of emails providers. It compares incomong email with emails in Junk Folder and others and after make a decision is it looks like spam or not.
About technology:
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# mabster
28/03/2007 12:31 PM
I'll check it out, Andrew. I presume it's totally compatible with 2007?
Still ... I don't know that I want to install an add-on just for the sake of one missing button. We'll see.
# Andrew Tobin
28/03/2007 2:15 PM
Damn it, you get all the goodies to play with! :P
#
29/03/2007 9:51 AM
Crucible,
Don't bother to try just yet either, even if you have Office or just Outlook 2007, you don't have an account !!
Will let you know when you too can play with the new toy !
# dave
2/01/2008 10:43 PM
you can do it. i've just forgotten. but re-installing my office 2007 now, so must remember. will post back shortly with easy simple junk button insertion.
# dave
6/01/2008 2:03 AM
done it. right click on the toolbar, select customize, go to commands, find actions, find junk mail option, click and drag that to your toolbar. et voila. i now have a "add sender to blocked senders list". perfect.
# mabster
6/01/2008 9:40 AM
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your idea, but it's not quite what I'm after.
In marking something as "junk", I'm actually talking about "training" the junk-mail system in Outlook. Simply blocking the sender won't do that.
Of course, Outlook doesn't use a Bayesian algorithm to determine what's junk - it uses some kind of system that it downloads from MS regularly. But I'd be happy if marking something as junk actually uploaded/forwarded the message to an MS server so they could train their filters there.
# Chris Norris
8/04/2008 6:48 PM
Hey Mabster, thanks for this blog. I just spent 20 minutes searching Outlook help, looking at toolbars, googling etc looking for that darn 'mark as junk' button. At least I'm not the only one, I guess the MS junk filter is not trainable after all.
# Pete
30/05/2008 11:47 PM
Dang it....I was afraid of this. Nothing in Outlook 2003, I was hoping this would be in 2007. One more reason I am hating having to move from Thunderbird with IMAP to Outlook with Exchange at work...
# chewearn
12/08/2008 1:37 PM
Yeah, I was scratching my head all morning, hunting for the same "Mark as Junk" button. Left a stern negative feedback on Microsoft online help too, since there is no explanation why they don't provide this feature.
# Jeff
23/07/2009 6:16 AM
So moving it to the junk mail folder doesn't work?
# Jeff
23/07/2009 6:17 AM
Try googling - SpamBayes.
Puts SPAM and NOT SPAM buttons on the toolbar.
# Frank
19/03/2010 10:46 AM
Today I tried running Outlook 2007 for the first time. There was a nice "Mark as Junk" or spam or whatever button there, which I used a number of times...I disabled Junk Email filtering for a while to download some archived POP mail, and the button went away. And now I can't find it to put it back.
Bravo, Microsoft. This is why people don't use Outlook.
# Mischelle
24/04/2013 6:24 PM
@Dave, your suggestion worked perfectly. Your post should be moved to the top of this blog. You're best. Thanks a bunch!!!!