Ody‘s WebPage
Apple and The Return Receipts
Within Apple Mail running under Tiger there is unfortunately no way to create the „Disposition-Notification-To“-headerline that indicates that the sender wants to receive a return receipt.
But as you can see at the image above, it‘s possible. I „developed“ an Applescript that forces Mail.app to create such a headerline. Cut and paste the following script in the Applescript Editor, compile it, save it and run it ...
tell application "Mail"
set listOfSenders to {}
set everyAccount to every account
repeat with eachAccount in everyAccount
set everyEmailAddress to email addresses of eachAccount
if (everyEmailAddress is not equal to missing value) then
repeat with eachEmailAddress in everyEmailAddress
set listOfSenders to listOfSenders & {(full name of eachAccount & " <" & eachEmailAddress & ">") as string}
end repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
set theResult to choose from list listOfSenders with prompt ¬
"Which account would you like to send this message from?" without multiple selections allowed
if theResult is not equal to false then
set theSender to item 1 of theResult
tell application "Mail"
set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {}
tell newMessage
set visible to true
set sender to theSender & "\nDisposition-Notification-To: " & theSender
end tell
activate
end tell
end if
This script is based upon the Standard Apple Script "Create New Mail" located in the folder
/library/scripts/Mail Scripts. I have deleted the unneccesary parts (at least for this purpose).
The script assumes that you have multiple mail identities (accounts), so as in the original script,
the modified script asks you to select the account from which the email should be sent.
The rest of the script I've either deleted or is pretty much the same as the original.
The only "innovation" you see in line 22. Since we know the sender through the selection procedure,
I afterwards added a new line "\n" and then the required headerline (Disposition-Noticiation-To:)
together with the senders email that we already know. Please take care that theSender that
comes out of your address book doesn't contain single or double quotation marks. In this case
the mail will be sent out but the recipient might see no receipt request. When you compile this routine
- what you definitely have to do - you will see that "\n" will vanish and the rest of the former line
(Disposition-Notification-To ...) is now in line 23. Don't worry the \n that forces a new line in the
outgoing mail is still there and active. Below you see how it will look like:
Now you have to add a new rule to mark the mails where you have requested a Notification.
Within "Create New Rules" you have to edit the header and add a new headerline named
"Disposition-Notification-To". The rule is simple: if a mail contains an @-sign in this headerline
colour it as you like. Now you not only will see within your sent items the mails where you have
requested a return receipt from addressee but also in the Inbox the mails where the sender
asks you send him a return receipt
This script is an example for "New Email & Receipt" If you want to be perfect you can do the
same with "Answer & Receipt", "Answer to All & Receipt" and "Forward & Receipt" and by using iKey2
or something similar you can run those scripts from an external menu or Hot-key. If you like you can
try to start the script(s) from within Mail Act-On. But my Apple Mail always crashes when I tried to
do this.
The script has been successfully tested on Intel Mac running under 10.4.7 using Exchange 2003,
Postfix and Exim as a Mailserver
If you have questions or suggestions just mailto:
Please be patient when I need more than a day to answer your mail.
