We’ve all made this mistake: hitting the Reply All button when you meant to respond only to original e-mail’s sender. Not only is it annoying, but it could result in information being divulged to the wrong people.

But there is a way you can help your users avoid this mistake.

In most e-mail programs, the Reply and Reply All buttons are right next to each other. They also look alike, so they’re often mistaken for one another.

What to do: Most programs also let you customize your toolbar so you can rearrange or even remove certain buttons.

For example, in Microsoft Outlook 2007:

1. Click on the “Tools” menu at the top and select “Customize…” from the drop-down list
2. Select the “Commands” tab and click the button that says “Rearrange commands”
3. In the new window that appears, click the button next to “Toolbar”
4. Find “Reply to All” in the list underneath and use the “Move Up” and “Move Down” commands to change its position, or click “Delete” to remove the button from the toolbar altogether.

If the button is removed, users can still reply to everyone by finding “Reply to All” in the “Actions” menu.

Tags: communication, e-mail