i am off next week and want to set my email up so that everytime someone sends me an email while i am away they get a message back telling them i am out of the office until ...
how do i do this?
thanks
Version? Recent ones can be done via Tools > Out of Office Assistant.
its an old one - 2003?
no out of office assistant under tools
Will it need to be on a server (ie, if the programme is just installed locally on one machine and collecting POP (?) mail it won't work unless the computer is left switched on).
I could be completely wrong mind you...
Is it Outlook Express?
don't think it is outlook express
looks like i will have to come back to 100's of emails - still i can worry about that monday week!
If you cant find out of office, try this
1. Open a new Outlook message formatted as plain text.
NOTE: Do not use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor.
2. Type the information that you want to have in your reply message.
3. On the File menu, click Save As.
4. In the Save As dialog box, click to select the Outlook Template check box in the Save As Type list.
5. Type a name for your reply template in the File Name box, and then click Save.
How to define a rule to send an automatic reply in Outlook 2003
1. On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
2. In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click the New Rule button on the E-mail Rules tab.
3. In the Rules Wizard, click the Start from a blank rule button, click Check messages when they arrive, and then click Next.
4. Under Which condition(s) do you want to check?, click to select the Sent Only To Me check box or any other check box that you want, and then click Next.
5. Under What do you want to do with the message?, click to select the reply using a specific template check box.
6. On the Step 2: Edit the Rule Description page of the wizard, click the underlined phrase a specific template.
7. In the Select A Reply Template dialog box, click the template that you saved in step 5 of the "How to Define an Automatic Reply Template" section, and then click Open.
8. Complete the Rules Wizard instructions, click Finish, and then click OK.
Pinched from MS support 😆
Don't use a blanket auto-reply rule as above, it could very easily result in your mailbox playing ping pong at Olympic speeds
have a better poke about. it's definitely in there and a piece of p to set up. my copy of outlook 2003 is sending out autoreplies this week and next :-).
It's performed server side AFAIK so unless it's a company based system with Exchange Server at their end, 'out of office can't work' [& doesn't get installed initially]
Does your ISP not offer a solution?
As someone has already alluded to, this does depend on whether Outlook is picking up email from an Exchange Server or just a POP3 account.
For instance if your Outlook is just set to pick up email from, for example, a BT account then chances are it is POP3 (essentially it just picks up email from BT's "post office"). Unless you leave your computer on and Outlook running an Auto reply just will not work. HOWEVER, most POP3 email accounts have web access as well, and it is usually on there that you will find an auto-responder. Your email provider should have details of how to access your email via the web.
This won't stop you coming back to 100s of emails though. All these "auto-responders" do is let people know you're away.
Just a word of warning - any scammers out their that get an out-of-office reply will target you big time! I'm convinced that my Ebay and Paypal were hacked a year ago when I was on my hols due to this.
If it's BT or the like, you can probably log onto their webmail interface and set it up there, that's what I do.
Only works if your Outlook is getting mail from an Exchange server. In this case go to Tools > Out of Office Assistant.
If you are not using Exchange, log on to your email account via your browser and check if your mail provider has this facility. If not, you can't do it.
Two points to consider:
1) Setting an auto reply will not stop you getting mail - people will still send them
2) Your spam count could increase if you auto reply to all - it will confirm to the spammers that your email account is live
[url= http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290846 ]http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290846[/url]