Sending a Vacation Reply Email from Outlook

It's great sending and receiving emails, but when you leave for vacation and you may not have access to your email account wouldn't it be great if you could have an automatic reply sent for you?

In Outlook you set rules and using a template can have an Out of Office reply or "I'm on vacation" reply sent for you.

Create an an email which is used as the reply template

1. Open a new Outlook message.
2. In the message body, type whatever information you'd like to appear in your custom reply.
3. On the Office menu, click Save As.
4. In the File name box, enter a name for your reply template.
5. In the Save as type box, click Outlook template, and then click Save.
6. Make note of where your template is saved.
7. Close, the email, and when prompted to save, click No.

Create a rule to send an automatic reply

• Click on the Tools menu, select Rules and Alerts.
• In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click the New Rule button.
• In the Rules Wizard under Start from a blank rule, click Check messages when they arrive, and then click Next.
• Under Which condition(s) do you want to check?, click to select the Sent Only To Me check box or any other check box that you want, and then click Next.
• Under What do you want to do with the message, click to select the Reply using a specific template check box.
• Edit the Rule Description, click the underlined phrase a specific template.
• In the Select A Reply Template dialog box, click the template that you saved previously and then click Open.
• Complete the Rules Wizard instructions, click Finish, and then click OK
• Give the rule a name (for example, vacation reply)
• Check off that the rule is in use when you go on vacation and anyone who sends you an email will be sent your automatic reply.

Happy clicking,

Betsy
The PC Teacher
www.thepcteacher.com