Hello Stuart Hemming & everyone else,
you waved the red flag for me, Stuart... :-)
on 10-Aug-2006 at 15:10 you (Stuart Hemming) wrote:
> It's true that the threading in TB! works nicely.
I don't think so. The mixed threading by reference and subject often
fails and sorts messages wrong. This works better in other clients.
> WIBNI there was a "use Outlook Threading Model" option, ideally on a
> folder-by-folder basis?
There is no Outlook Threading Model. Outlook uses its own proprietary
"Thread-Index" header to sort conversations in a threaded view. This
only works in Outlook, it is part of the Exchange transfer protocol. Its
a proprietary MS invention. Apparently, it was too difficult for MS to
implement threaded views using existing techniques with in-reply-to and
references headers. Whatever.
Whats worse is that Outlook 2003 does not create message IDs itself (and
it does not break the RFC by doing so), this *should* be done by the
mailserver if no msgid is present (which for example Exchange does), but
many SMTP servers out there (I mean ISPs) don't do that. So, if you're
trying to thread messages coming from Outlook, you'll fail with any
other client but Outlook.
And TB's threading mechanism fails on such messages indeed. The
re-threading doesn't work propperly either. You can't re-thread an
Outlook message into its appropriate position in a thread. I've
discussed this in a BT note and was told it ain't possible any other
way.
And whats worse is that Outlook DOES create an in-reply-to header. Which
means: if you are the originator of a message and an Outlook user
replies to it, his message will be threaded correctly. But when you
reply to his (or her) reply again, the references header contains only
your message IDs (because the Outlook message has no msgid), and your
reply ends in TBs threaded view under your very own originating message.
It should be like this:
TB message (#1)
+-Outlook message (#2)
+-TB message (#3)
But TB shows it like this:
TB message (#1)
+-Outlook message (#2)
+-TB message (#3)
I'd be surprised if Outlook 2007 will behave more nicely, but I doubt
it. And I don't feel the urge to try the Office 2007 beta. :-)
--
Best regards,
Alexander (http://www.neurowerx.de)
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers. -- H.
L. Mencken
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