I have a SOMEWHAT complicated question to fix an issue that is more of an annoyance than a serious problem. Let me start off by explaining my scenario. I have two email addresses: a university address and a gmail address. The storage on my university address is only 5 MB so I set up gmail's POP3 feature to automatically download my messages and delete them from the university server.

Now here is the problem. I like to use Outlook 2003 on my home computer to manage my email. When I had Outlook checking both accounts separately (before my university email was wired through my gmail INBOX), both email accounts would download to the same Outlook inbox, but if I replied to a message it would send from the email address it was originally sent to (e.g., if a professor sent a message to my university account and I wanted to REPLY, the message would automatically send from my university email address rather than my gmail address without me having to select it). Now that all of my email is being downloaded from my gmail inbox, all messages I reply to default as sent from my gmail address no matter which of my email addresses it was originally sent to.

I had an idea to fix the problem but am having a bit of trouble. I wanted to create a rule that if email was sent TO my university address, then when I try to reply I will be sending FROM my university address by default. However, I don't think such a feature is built into Outlook's rules.

Any suggestions? Thank you!I'm getting a kind of contradiction, or some confusion, here. In your first paragraph, you state that 5MB limitation of the university caused you to set up the Gmail account. But, in your second paragraph, you indicate you were, at one time, using Outlook directly for university mail. This would mean the 5MB limitation was not really a problem. Please clarify. Why did you feel you had to stop using Outlook directly for university mail?I love to use Outlook at home, and if I only checked my email at home I would not need the gmail account as I could just have outlook download my messages and delete them from the university server in the process. However, I often check my email at school and work among other places. To do this, I need to have my messages stored on a web-based email service. Does this help clear things up?Yes, that makes it clear. I don't know that a rule can be used this way. But, do you have your university mail account set up in Outlook in your home computer? If not, why not create that account and then use it as the sending account when you reply? This would achieve the OBJECTIVE, although it does not make it automatic. With multiple email accounts in Outlook, one will be default for sending but this can be changed by clicking on the Accounts button and SELECTING the desired account for a new message or reply. Here's an image to illustrate:


Does that help?Right, I knew about the accounts button. I was just wondering about a way to make it automatic, because at first glance I don't always know which account each email was sent to so I don't know which to reply from.

Nonetheless, I think I figured out a solution. I changed gmail so it does not delete the messages off my university server. Then, I changed Outlook so it still downloads from the university server, but it deletes the email after 1 day (giving gmail more than enough time to download it before it gets deleted). This then results in a duplicate of every message sent to my university email address in my Outlook inbox (one from the university server and one from the gmail server) so I created a rule that applies only to emails downloaded off gmail and permanently deletes any messages sent to my university address. I haven't received an email to my university address yet to test it out, but logically it seems like it should work.

Thanks for the help anyway!