Outlook's Junk E-Mail Indicator

This is more of an Outlook issue than SpamSieve, but it is related, so I thought I’d post it here so see if anyone has any thoughts. Here goes…

In the Outlook 2011 Navigation Pane, there is a numerical indicator showing you how many unread messages are in each folder. For some crazy reason, Microsoft decided to make this indicate all messages, rather than unread messages in the Junk E-Mail folder (only). I find this really annoying. Has anyone figured out a way to change this behavior?

Here’s why it’s related to SpamSieve… I use both server side spam filtering and SpamSieve. The server catches a good portion of the spam and routes it to the Junk folder. SpamSieve catches the rest and moves it to the junk folder. But SpamSieve also marks mail in the Junk folder as read if it thinks it’s spam. SpamSieve is so darn accurate that I don’t have to bother looking at the Junk folder unless there is an unread message in there, meaning that the server side filter flagged it, but SpamSieve doesn’t think it’s spam.

As an aside, the reason I have it set up this way is because I need some basic spam filtering to still be going on when my Outlook client can’t be running. For example, when I’m traveling and my laptop (only computer) is packed in the car and I’m checking email on my phone (no, not while I’m driving!).

Anyway, with things set up this way, I don’t ever need to look at the Junk folder unless a message shows up in there that is marked as unread. But with Outlook indicating all messages instead of only unread ones, I’m forced to go into the Junk folder and check it (if I remember).

To avoid forgetting to check the Junk folder, I’ve written a small Applescript applet that periodically checks the Junk folder and notifies me if it finds any unread messages. The applet is attached in case anyone wants to use it. (Note that it requires Growl and Satimage.osax to be installed.) If you’d rather not have Growl notifications, you could delete those from the script and instead use the commented out section that displays an Applescript notification instead.

But… If anyone knows a way to get Outlook to display only the count of unread messages in the Junk folder, please let me know!

Rick

Outlook Spam Monitor.zip (243 KB)