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How to Get Rid of Outlook Subject Prefix “FW” And “RE”

Create a VBA script to automatically edit the Subject field

5 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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If you ever sent an email you may have noticed certain prefixes in the subject box. This is why many are wondering how to get rid of Outlook subject prefix FW and RE.

While these prefixes don’t affect users negatively in any way, some might find them distracting, therefore, in today’s guide, we’re going to show you the best way to get rid of them.

What is “RE” and “FW” in Outlook?

These are email subject abbreviations, and they are used to distinguish new email messages from the ones that you’ve replied to or forwarded.

While these are useful, some may find them distracting. In some cases, you might even get multiple abbreviations in a subject field thus making the subject of the message less visible.

This is the reason why they want to remove them so badly, and if you’re one of those users, keep on reading.

Why do “FW” and “RE” prefixes appear in Outlook?

This is the default behavior not just in Outlook but in every email client and service. These abbreviations are used to help you distinguish quickly between forwarded emails and the ones that you’ve already replied to.

Since these are added to the subject field, you can see this distinguish these messages at a glance, without having to open them.

These are added automatically to all email messages as soon as you reply or forward them, and that’s a common practice that all email services use.

How to manually get rid of “FW” and “RE” prefixes?

Manually edit the subject line before replying

Few of reported that they can’t complete these steps becauseOutlook view is not showing subject, but we showed you a way to fix that in a different guide.

While this method is simple, it’s not the most convenient since you have to do this for every single email that you’re replying to.

It can get tedious, and sometimes you might even forget to remove it thus causing your email subjects to look inconsistent.

To learn more about Outlook, we have a great guide that shows you how tomark all emails as read, so don’t miss it.

How to get rid of the “FW” and “RE” prefixes automatically in Outlook?

The code is pretty simple and it checks if FW or RE appears in the Subject field. If it does, users will be asked if they want to remove it.

If they want, the Subject field will be automatically updated.

You can also remove prefixes from entire folders as well. To do that, repeat the same steps, but in step 4 selectFoldersand then choose the desired folder.

As you can see, removing Outlook prefixes is simpler than you thought. However, doing so manually can be tedious and ineffective.

To help you with that, we have a great guide on how tosearch for keywords in Outlook, so be sure to check it out.

Therefore, we recommend using a VBA script or one of many available Outlook add-ins to automate the process.

In case you’re having issues with any of these add-ins, we have a guide on how to fixThis add-in could not be startederror, so be sure to check it out.

What method do you use to remove RE and FW from the Subject field in Outlook? Let us know in the comments below.

How to Get Rid of Outlook Subject Prefix “FW” And “RE”#

What is “RE” and “FW” in Outlook?#

Why do “FW” and “RE” prefixes appear in Outlook?#

How to manually get rid of “FW” and “RE” prefixes?#

Manually edit the subject line before replying#

How to get rid of the “FW” and “RE” prefixes automatically in Outlook?#