Out of Office Assistant

Microsoft Exchange allows you to set up automatic notifications that are sent in reply to emails you receive. This allows you to notify people that you are out of the office, and when you will be back.

You can customize the message to anything you want, such as instructions for contacting someone else, or providing alternate methods of contacting you.

You can set the Out of Office Assistant to start and end at specific times as well.

1. On the Tools menu, click Out of Office Assistant.
   
   
   
   Note The Tools menu appears on the main Outlook window. The main window is the same window that appears when you start Outlook and includes the File, Edit, View, Go, Tools, Actions, and Help menus. There is no Tools menu in windows where you create or view items such as e-mail messages, contacts, or tasks.
   
   
2. Click Send Out of Office auto-replies.
   
   
3. If you want, select the Only send during this time range check box to schedule when your out of office replies are active. If you do not specify a start and end time, auto-replies will be sent until you click Do not send Out of Office auto-replies.
   
   
4. On the Inside My Organization tab, type the response that you want to send while you are out of the office. To send auto-replies to people out of your organization, continue with steps 5 and 6.
   
   
5. On the Outside My Organization tab, select the Auto-reply to people outside my organization check box, and then type the response that you want to send while you are out of the office.
   
   Note Organization is usually defined as your company and includes people who have an Exchange Server account on your e-mail system.
   
   
6. When the Auto-reply to people outside my organization check box is selected, the Outside My Organization tab displays (On) next to the tab name.
   
   
7. On the Outside My Organization tab, click My Contacts only or Anyone outside my organization to specify the people to whom auto-replies are to be sent.
   
   Note The contact must exist in your Exchange Server Contacts folder. If the contact exists only in a folder that is a part of a Personal Folders file (.pst), the auto-reply message will not be sent.

This article is excerpted from an article on Microsoft's web site at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP012328301033.aspx.