Microsoft Outlook allows you to set a rule on your account to automatically check incoming messages and reply with a designated email to let your contacts know that you are out of the office. The following are step-by-step instructions on setting up such a rule:
1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Click on "New," to open a new email message.
3. There, type in the subject line and body as you would like the auto-reply message to show. Leave the "To" line blank.
4. Click, "File," and then "Save As" to save the file. In the "Save as Type" box, select "Outlook Template .oft."
Note: If you do not see the "Outlook Template.oft" option here, you must make Outlook the default email editor. To do so, click "Tools," "Options," the "Mail Format" tab, uncheck the box that says "Use Microsoft Word to Edit Email Messages," click "Apply," and then "OK."
5. Close the email message you just created.
6. When Outlook asks you if you want to save the message, select "No."
7. Open the Rules screen by clicking "Tools" and then "Rules and Alerts."
8. Click on "New Rule."
9. Select "Start from a blank rule."
10. Select "Check messages when they arrive."
11. Click "Next."
12. Do not check any of the boxes under "Which condition(s) do you want to check."
13. Click "Next."
14. When the box pops up asking "This rule will be applied to every message you receive. Is this correct?" - Click "Yes."
15. Under "Step 1," click the box next to "reply using a specific template."
16. Under "Step 2," click on the link "a specific template."
17. Click the arrow next to "Look In."
18. Select "User Templates in the File System."
19. Click on the Out of Office Reply you created in step 3. The name will be whatever you wrote as the subject of the email.
20. Click Open.
21. Click "Next" on the Rules Wizard two times (on the "What do you want to do with the message?" and "Are there any exceptions?" screens.
22. If you want to turn on the auto-reply message immediately, click finish. If you would like to wait to turn on the auto-reply later, uncheck the "Turn on this rule" box and click finish.
23. Click "Apply" to save
24. Click "OK" to exit
25. If you left the "Turn on this rule" box checked, your Out of Office Auto-Reply is now working!
26. You can test it's functionality by sending yourself an email doing a send/receive two times. If you receive the test message and the auto-reply, you have completed the steps correctly!
Additional Notes
Make Sure Your Rule Works - Leave Your Computer on!
The out of office auto-reply feature only works if you have your computer on, your Outlook open, and the email account sent to automatically send/receive. Make sure that you are set up to do so under "Tools," "Options," the "Mail Setup" tab, and "Send/Receive" option screen. You can schedule an automatic send/receive at any interval you prefer. Once your computer is set up correctly, you can put it in "Hibernate" mode, where you can continue to receive and reply to messages without leaving the computer in full power. To do so, click "Start," "Shut Down," and change the option box to "Hibernate." Feel free to turn off the monitor while you are gone and just leave the computer to silently check your mail.
Turning the Auto-Reply on at a Later Time
If you unchecked the "Turn on this rule" box during setup, you can turn on the auto reply at a later time by following these easy steps:
1. In Outlook, click "Tools" and then "Rules and Alerts"
2. Click the checkbox next to the rule you created.
3. Click "Apply."
4. Click "OK."
5. Your rule is now turned on!
Turning the Auto Reply Off
When you get back to the office, just follow these simple steps to turn the Auto-Reply off:
1. Click "Tools" and select "Rules and Alerts"
2. Uncheck the box next to the Auto-Reply rule
3. Click "Apply"
4. Click "OK"
5. The rule is now turned off!
Editing the Reply MessageAfter using the Out-of-Office reply once, you don't need to redo the whole process the next time you are out of the office. Follow the steps on the following slides to change your message:
1. The trickiest part is finding the message again, click in the following order:
Start Bar
"My Computer"
"Local Disk (C:)"
"Documents and Settings"
Your Name (one folder will be the name of the computer)
"Application Data"
"Microsoft"
"Templates"
Finally- The Out of Office Message! 2. First- so you never have to go through that again, right click on the email and select "Desktop (Create Shortcut)." That way, you can just open the file directly from there in the future.
3. Edit the text of the message to read what you would like the Auto-Reply message to say.
4. Click, "File," and then "Save As" to save the file.
5. In the "Save as Type" box, select "Outlook Template .oft."
6. Close the email message you just created.
7. When Outlook asks "The file already exists. Do you want to replace the file?' Select "Yes."
8. Turn on the rule using the directions above.
Ryan Hemphill Want more tutorials like this?
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10:03 PM
Sanket Barot
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