Microsoft Entourage 2008
Creating Out of Office Replies
Entourage allows you to set an automatic reply for emails sent to you while you are away. 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
- Enabling and Disabling Your Out Of Office Reply
General Tips and Considerations
When creating an out of office reply, consider these tips to ensure that your reply is as helpful and informative as possible.
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Include the names and contact information of alternative individuals who can address a sender's particular request. If you are including multiple alternative contacts, indicate the type of request each individual can respond to.
HINT: Consider multiple contacts if you are going to be gone for an extended absence (e.g., sabbatical). -
Include when you will be available again.
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If you feel it is appropriate, include the reason why you are out of the office.
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Make sure that your out of office message is sent only to those who you deem appropriate.
HINT: If you subscribe to any discussion lists (listservs), Entourage can prevent your out of office message from going to all of the list members.
Creating an Out of Office Reply
To generate an out of office reply you must first create a Rule; the following steps will show you how this is done.
WARNING: A rule will not work unless you have set up a schedule to send and receive mail continuously. In order to do this, you must have your computer on and your Internet connection active while you are away.
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From the Tools menu, select Rules...
The Rules dialog box appears.
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Select Mail (Exchange)
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Click NEW
The Edit Rule dialog box appears.
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In the Rule name text box, type a name for the rule
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In the If section, using the pull-down lists, select who you would like to send an automatic reply to
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In the Then section, from the Add Action pull-down list, select Reply
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Click REPLY TEXT...
The Reply Text dialog box appears.
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In the Reply Text dialog box, type the appropriate text
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Click OK
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Click OK
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Close the Rules dialog box
Enabling and Disabling Your Out Of Office Reply
It is important to enable and disable your reply promptly.
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From the Tools menu, select Rules...
The Rules dialog box appears. -
Select Mail (Exchange)
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From the list of Rules, select or deselect the rule you created for your out of office reply as appropriate
NOTE: If there is a checkmark before the rule, the rule is selected. -
Close the Rules dialog box
