We recently received a question from Daniel P. about whether GroupWise lets people know if their messages are delivered, read, and/or deleted by recipients. Evidently his users are clamoring for that kind of insight, and he wants to make sure GroupWise provides it before he purchases it.

The answer is a resounding Yes. GroupWise will happily tell you all of that, and more, but it only works fully if you are sending to another GroupWise mailbox at your company. Here's how you look to see what happened to the email you sent.

1. Go to your Sent Items, and find the email you're curious about.

• Open the email by double-clicking it.

• Click the Properties tab, and you will see a list of your recipients and the most recent action they have taken with your email (Replied, Read, Deleted, Forwarded, etc.) If you see Response Pending, that means they haven't opened it yet. If you see "Emptied" that means they not only deleted it, but they emptied it from their Trash as well. (For some reason, that kind of stings.)

This is a very popular feature for managers who want to know exactly who they can hold responsible for having read their email. (We've also heard it is a useful feature for people attempting to flirt in the workplace.)

Now remember, this will only work within your own company. If you sent the email to a user outside of your company (whether or not they use GroupWise at their company), you won't see anything about their actions except "Transferred". (Not quite as satisfying, right?) But as long as you confine your curiosity to the actions of your co-workers, you should have a lot of info to work with.

Bonus Tip: We have a nifty related feature as well -- you can actually retract any email you have sent to a user at your company, UNLESS they have already opened it. This is where it is handy to be able to tell if they have opened it or not. If it says Response Pending, and you are sorry you sent it, hurry and do this:

1. Click Delete.
2. Select "Delete from Recipient's Mailbox"

Bam, this snatches it out of their mailbox without a trace. At this point you can rewrite it to sound even smarter, fix typos, add forgotten attachments, or even delete it from your own mailbox.

This has saved many a career, and many an ego.