Microsoft Outlook 2003

Creating Out of Office Replies

Outlook 2003 provides you with a feature to automatically reply to emails sent to you while you are away. The Out of Office Assistant will send a specified message once to each sender. This is helpful in instructing people how to contact you or whom to contact in place of you while you are away.

General Tips and Considerations
Creating an Out of Office Reply
Turning Off the Out of Office Assistant

General Tips and Considerations

Include the names/addresses of alternate contacts who can handle a sender's request if it is urgent. If you are including multiple alternative contacts, it may be appropriate to indicate the types of requests that each can respond to.
HINT: If you are going to be gone for an extended absence (e.g., sabbatical), consider including multiple contacts.
Include a reference to when you will be returning.
If you feel it is appropriate, include the reason why you are out of the office.

If you are subscribing to any discussion lists (listservs), sign off or suspend your subscription to prevent your out of office message from going to all of the list members.

Creating an Out of Office Reply

As part of your preparations for your absence, use the Out of Office Assistant to set up your out of the office message:

From the Folder list, select Inbox
From the Tools menu, select Out of Office Assistant...
Select I am currently Out of the Office
In the AutoReply only once to each sender with the following text text box, type the message that you want sent
NOTE: For suggestions on content, refer to General Tips and Considerations.
OPTIONAL: To apply rules to messages received while you are out of office,
1. Click ADD RULE...
  The Edit Rule dialog box appears.
2. Complete the Edit Rule dialog box as appropriate
3. Click OK
Click OK
If the Out of Office Assistant is on when you open Outlook, a dialog box will appear notifying you that it is on and giving you the option to turn it off.

Turning Off the Out of Office Assistant

When you return from an absence, you will want to promptly turn off the Out of Office Assistant.

Turning Off Out of Office Assistant: Opening Outlook

If the Out of Office Assistant is on, when you open Outlook, a dialog box will appear notifying you that it is on, in addition to giving you the option to turn it off.

Open Outlook 2003
The Out Of Office Turned On dialog box appears.
Click YES
The Out of Office Assistant is turned off.

Turning Off Out of Office Assistant: Outlook Already Open

From the Folder list, select Inbox
From the Tools menu, select Out of Office Assistant...
Select I am currently In the Office
Click OK