The below information will be converted into a Computer Hope document for future users and reference.
Microsoft Outlook has a feature known as “Out of Office Assistant”. This feature enables a user to have e-mail automatically responded to when out of the office. You can find this feature under the “Tools” menu in Microsoft Outlook.
Unfortunately this feature requires that your e-mail server be running on Microsoft Exchange to work. Therefore if your server is not running Microsoft Exchange this option will be missing from the Tools Menu.
However, users who do not have exchange servers can also setup a rule to automatically reply to their messages during a specific date, to do this follow the below steps.
First, you will need to create an Outlook template. Below is an example of how a template is created.
1. Create a new mail message. Because this is going to be used for the out of office you will want this mail message to indicate you are currently out of the office and when you are going to return.
2. Click File, save as, type the name of the file, for the Save as type select “Outlook Template (*.oft)” If you do not have this option it is likely because Outlook templates are not installed. Click ok.
3. Close the e-mail, when you close the e-mail you will be prompted if you want to save the e-mail say No.
1. Click Tools and then Rules Wizard.
2. Click New.
3. Select “Check messages when they arrive” and click Next.
4. Check “received in a specified date span” click the date span link in the rule description box and specify the date and click ok and then Next.
5. Check “reply using a specific template” and in the rule description click the template link and point to the template you created earlier. You may need to change the “Look In” to “User Templates in File System”. Once the file has been selected Click Open.
6. Click Finish.
Of course for this to successfully work you will need to have your computer open and Outlook open as well while you are gone.
