Nope. I have one identity that has multiple email accounts set up within it
(HTTP and IMAP accounts, though my discussion relates solely to IMAP
accounts. POP accounts may well behave differently).


An explanation of how OE works compared to O2003.

Lets assume I have 2 accounts, IMAP_1 and IMAP_2. This means my (OE) folder
structure will be:
Outlook Express
- Local Folders
---Inbox
--- Outbox
--- Sent Items
---
- IMAP_1
--- Inbox
--- Outbox
--- Sent Items
-IMAP_2
--- Inbox
--- Outbox
--- Sent Items

The equivelent in O2003, will be:
Personal Folders
-Inbox
-Outbox
-Sent Items
IMAP_1
-Inbox
-Outbox
-Sent Items
IMAP_2
-Inbox
-Outbox
-Sent Items


Firstly, we'll start with Replying to a message.

In OE6, I read a message that is sitting in the IMAP_2/Inbox. I hit reply.
The new message box opens, and the message is identified as coming from
IMAP_2. I type my message and hit send. The message will be sent, and will
appear in IMAP_2/Sent Items.

In O2003, I read a message that is sitting in the IMAP_2/Inbox. I hit reply.
The new message box opens, and the message is identified as coming from
IMAP_2. I type my message and hit send. The message will be sent, and will
appear in Personal Folders/Sent Items.

Now, what is the point of having an IMAP account, when the sne item is only
stored locally, and not back to the server?


Now, a typical workflow scenario, including writing a new message:

In OE6, I read a message in IMAP_2. Finish reading that one, I move to the
next message in IMAP_2. This one from Joe Bloggs, asks me to contact Jane
Doe. So, with the message from Joe still in the previe pane, I hit Create
Mail, type my message and hit send. The message will be sent from IMAP_2,
and will be placed into my IMAP_2/Sent Items folder.

In Outlook, I read Joe's message, hit New whilst Joe's message is still in
the preview pane, and type the message to Jane. At this stage I have not
remembered to select "IMAP_2" from the Accounts Drop Down, and hit send. The
message gets sent from IMAP_1 as it is the default account, and then gets
saved to the Personal Folders/Sent Items Folder.

Is this behaviour not TOTALLY counterintuitive. It is certainly different to
how OE6 (and 5 before it) works, as well as different to Thunderbird, and a
few other email clients I have used over the years.

The concept of a default email account to me is wrong in so many ways. I
have a little money making venture that I do at home, as such I have an
email account set up for . I also use the
computer for my social life, and so have , and also manage a
community organisation, and so have . Why would I ever
want to have an email that I intend to send to a business contact to go out
via my social account - that'll look pretty unprofessional. Aah, so you say
that I create the business account as default. That means that I can be
sending an email to a business group asking them to donate money to a
community organisation, when in fact the email address shows a business
name. Not all of us are perfect, and I am sure quite a few people have
forgotten to select the correct email account from the drop down list.

Why not make OE pop up a message if no account is selected "You have not
selected an account. Do you want to use the default account (account name)
to send this message?"

That is just a stop gap, until a solution that is used in every other email
client that I have ever used, is implemented, where the currently active
account is used as default.


"Gordon" wrote in message
...
PlaneGuy wrote:

Unfortunately, it seems like Outlook's implementation of multiple
accounts
is SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than Outlook Express'. In the little brother
version, if you have a message in account B selected, and selected
"Create
Mail" then the message will by default be sent by Account B, even if
Account A is default. Outlook, will default to Account A, and only an
explicit selection of Account B will be used.

Ah - you are obviously using Identities for your separate accounts then?


Similarly, I have multiple email accounts set up (3xIMAP). No matter
which
account I select to send the message from, the "Sent Message" gets saved
in the same folder - "Personal Folders"|"Sent Items".

Correct. That's always been the case. If you need to separate sent items
than either set up manually a sent items folder for each account and use a
rule to move the messages after sending, or use separate Outlook profiles
for each account.



Outlook Express is
smart enough to know to save an email sent from Account B in Account B's
Sent Items folder - why can't the paid product do the same?

Well I don't know which version of OE you are using, but AFAIK there is NO
automatic creation of separate "sent item" folders for separate email
accounts UNLESS you use separate Identities. This has been the rule ever
since OE4 AFAICR.

BTW, Outlook Express is NOT a "free" version of Outlook - the two are
totally separate applications aimed at completely different target users.



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