These three buttons sit next to each other and do very different things. Pressing the wrong one is the most common way people embarrass themselves at work, and unlike most mistakes at a keyboard, this one cannot be undone.
Reply goes to the sender only. One person.
Reply all goes to the sender and everybody else who was on the message, including people in CC that you may not have scrolled up to see.
Forward sends the whole thread to somebody new, including everything written earlier in it, which is the part people forget.
The check that prevents all of it. Before you send, read the To and CC lines. Not the message, the addresses. It takes two seconds and it is the only habit that reliably works.
Forwarding carries history. If your supervisor wrote something blunt about a customer three messages up, and you forward the thread to that customer, you have sent it to them. Scroll to the bottom of what you are forwarding before you send it, or delete the older part.
There is no undo. Some email systems offer a few seconds to recall a message and most of the time it does not work, because the other person's copy has already arrived. Treat send as final, because it is.
Your supervisor emails eleven people about weekend shifts and asks everyone to confirm. You are not available on Saturday.
What happens: Ten colleagues who did not need to know now know where you will be, and your supervisor has ten notifications to wade through. Reply all on a roster message is how eleven people end up with forty emails about one weekend.
What happens: Right. Only the person who needs the answer gets it, and your reason stays yours. Reply all is for information the whole group genuinely needs.
When should I use reply all?
When every person on the message needs your answer to do their own job. A change of meeting room, a correction to something wrong that everybody read, a decision the group is waiting on. If in doubt, reply to the sender and let them pass it on. Nobody has ever been thought less of for replying to one person.
I replied all by mistake and it was personal
Do not send a second message to the group apologising, because that puts it in front of everyone twice. Message the person it concerns directly, say plainly that you sent it to the wrong list, and leave it. Most people forget by the next day if you do not keep it alive.
How do I forward without the old messages?
Forward as normal, then delete the earlier text below your message before you send. On a phone you may need to expand the quoted section first, usually shown as three dots or a small arrow. If it is faster, write a new email and attach only the file, which is often what the person actually needed.
Before you move on
- Read the To and CC lines before every send
- Reply to one person unless the whole group needs it
- Scroll to the bottom of anything you forward
Check what you know
4 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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