Creating a rule that replies with a message

I keep getting these RSVP confirmations, and I want Outlook to automatically reply with this pre-written message. If done right, it's going to save me a ton of time. Here is my response e-mail. After writing it, formatting it, and giving it a subject, I'm going to save the message as a template from the File menu. I'll pull down the File menu, choose Save As, and for the type, change it to Outlook Template. I'll use the name Picnic RSVP Confirmed and hit Save.

My e-mail is now saved. Now, I just need to create the rule. I'll pull down the Rules menu and choose Create Rule, and then choose Advanced Options. Now I need to specify the condition for the rule. All the e-mails that are coming in use the words "Picnic RSVP" in the subject, so that's going to be my trigger.

I'll type "Picnic RSVP" and hit Add. Clicking Next, I can specify the actions to take. I want to reply with that template that I created earlier, so I'll click here, reply using a specific template. To see the template that I created, I'll pull down this menu and choose User Templates and then Picnic RSVPs Confirmed. But while I am at it, let me do two other quick things. I want to flag the message for follow-up, and I want to move it to my RSVP folder.

Now, I'll click Next, and since there is no exceptions, I'll click Next one more time. Here is the name for the rule. There is no need to run it on the ones I already have, but I do want to leave it on. So I'll click Finish, and my rule is ready to go. Again, like before, this is a client-only rule and will only run while Outlook is running. But don't worry. If I receive an e-mail in the middle of the night, it will still run at 8 a.m. when I come in. Fantastic! The e-mail arrived, and it was moved to RSVPs and flagged for follow-up. There it is.

There it is. In my Sent Items, here is the automatic response. Now that we've taken care of these mundane tasks, I'd like to talk to you about another sore subject, junk e-mail. Let's check out the next video.