Send an out-of-office or autoreply email

- [Instructor] When you go on vacation, you probably change your voicemail on your phone telling callers the dates you'll be unavailable to return calls. You can do the same with email, and it's called Out of Office. Outlook will auto respond to anyone that emails you within the dates that you'll be away. This functionality is supported in Outlook only if you're connected to an Exchange account. If you're using POP or IMAP, you can create a message rule to apply to all incoming mail, but it's important to note that the Outlook client does have to be open and running. I am using Gmail with IMAP.

Gmail has its own vacation responder built right into their web interface, so it's always worth checking with the email provider first to see if they already have this functionality. Let's create an Out of Office message for red30. At the top of the screen click Tools and then Out of Office. I'll place a checkmark next to Send Automatic Replies for account [email protected] I'll click inside the box and put my reply message.

You can specify a time range though you don't have to. Not specifying one is great for unmonitored mailboxes to send a reply back that this is in fact unmonitored. But I'm going on vacation so I'm going to place a check box and set a time range when I'll be away. I can even specify the time. This is a message that everybody inside my organization will see. If I want external email addresses to see a message, I can create a separate one just for them.

I'll make sure Also send replies to senders outside my organization is checked, and now I can put in a different message. I'll click Okay, Out of Office will be turned on at the exact date and time that I specified I'm going to be away. A great thing about Out of Office with Exchange is that Outlook doesn't have to be open or running and my computer can be turned off. When I'm back in the office, it will automatically turn itself off at the date and time that I said I'd be returning.

If I need to turn it off sooner, I can do so by clicking Tools, Out of Office, and unchecking Send Automatic Replies. I'll click Okay, and now it's disabled and it won't turn on when I go away.