Can I automatically send an e-mail response when I'm away?

[AE the EA]

Can outlook be configured to send an automatic e-mail response when I am
going away for a few days?

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP-S/U]]

There is no Out of Office or automatic vacation response feature in Outlook
unless it's used with an Exchange Server. You can use Rules Wizard to
automatically reply to incoming messages, but there are some problems with
this:

- You must leave the computer running constantly while gone.
- It must be set to send and receive messages on a schedule.
- It must not encounter any errors or else it will stop and wait for user
intervention.
- If you belong to any mailing lists be sure to unsubscribe or else make
sure that the rules will exclude replies to the list. Otherwise you will
cause an avalanche of messages to the list.

If your ISP provides a vacation response, this is better handled on his
server.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-S/U -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Mafeking_42]

Hal,
I am sure there is a facility using Outlook 2002 from Office XP
Professional. I am sure of that because SOMEHOW I managed to set up an 'on
holiday' autoreply using the link "have Exchange Server send custon reply
messages". However, I do not remember exactly how I set that up - but
obviously I did because I remember typing the message that people were to
receive and selecting a number of people from my Contacts list who should
receive it.

MY PROBLEM is that it is working too well ie I CANNOT DELETE the message.
That is a total PAIN. Not only that, now if I go through the procedure I
think I used to set up the message - there is no box marked "have server
reply using a specific message". I am confused, very confused. Could the
lack of this box be because since setting up the out of office reply I have
upgraded Outlook with service pack 3??

Any help much appreciated

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP-S/U]]

Yes, the facility exists, but only when Outlook is used with an Exchange
Server. You appear to be using an Exchange Server, the original poster was
not. Look under "Tools|Out of Office Assistant".

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-S/U -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com