Send response based on category rule; auto remove category?

[tish]

I'm using Outlook 2003, Windows XP Pro. I think I have two questions here.

In outlook, I have 2 mailboxes: my own work email and a secondary email,
where I respond to customer inquiries on behalf of the department. For the
department mailbox only, I would like to categorize incoming emails then run
a rule on those with category X to receive canned response Y. I have created
a rule using the wizard that does this, but see that the responses are coming
from my own work email address and not the department's email address. They
should come from the secondary, department email address. Also, if one
someone replies to my response, the category will stay with the email. Is
there a way to strip the category from an incoming email, so as not to
double- (or more) count an email? I've summarized below the process I use, in
case anyone has a better idea of doing this or if it helps answer the
questions I've posed.

Basically, I get lots of inquiries. Because the wording of inquiries vary so
greatly, I can't use keywords to auto reply with the appropriate response
(that would be too beautiful if I could). So, when they come in, I seperate
them into folders, then when I have time, send them a canned response. After
the response is sent, I mark all incomings with a blue flag and toss them
into the "answered" folder. The blue flag is for counting monthly stats of
the incoming mails only, and not back and forth responses from a customer.

Thank you so much for any help you can give!

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You should log into that delegate mailbox and create the rule there so it
runs under that logon. That way replies from the mailbox will come from the
mailbox. To strip out a category from the incoming emails in Outlook 2003
you need to have a "script" that gets called from the rule. The script would
strip out all categories from the item. At that point it probably would be
best to have the script code add the categories and take care of sending out
the replies.

You can find information on scripts for rules at www.outlookcode.com.
Basically the script is a public Sub in the VBA project that takes the
incoming mail item as an argument.

 

[tish]

hmm.. I guess define "log into". I am in the Inbox of the mailbox I want it
to come from when I create the rule, and it still shows "from" my main
mailbox. what should I be doing to create that rule in Mailbox B and not in
Mailbox A?

I got lost at the later portions of the script talk. If someone has more
precise/pro-newbie info to post regarding stripping cats, I'd appreciate. If
not, I will add this to my list of "to research" topics.

Either way, thank you, Ken!

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You would need to create an Outlook profile that logs into that mailbox and
not your own normal mailbox. That's what would be required, otherwise you
are considered as logged into your own mailbox and sending as yourself.

For the script stuff it's easiest to search on www.outlookcode.com for
"rules script" and review some of the examples there. Lots of good info on
that site.