How do I set up an 'Auto Reply' in Outlook/Outlook Express?

[Bonnie Lass]

Hey folks. I'm leaving town for a little while and won't have access to my e-mail for almost a week. I'm trying to figure out a way I can set up my e-mail so that when someone sends me an e-mail, my account will automatically send a pre-composed message to them.

Does anyone know how to do this? I've looked under options and all over the menu, but I can't seem to find anything of this nature.

Thanks for the help.

[skipshady]

Outlook should have Out Of Office Assistant to set this up. It should be under Tools menu, though I don't have Outlook here so don't know for certain.

I'm pretty sure it's not possible on Outlook Express without some kind of hacking. Of course, if your account can be accessed over the web, say, Yahoo or Hotmail, you can easily set up an Away message that way.

[Bonnie Lass]

ooh ooh.

Both of the e-mail accounts I'm trying to do that to are Hotmail accounts. (That I access from home via Outlook or OE)

I've tried going online to Hotmail, but I can't find jack on how to do this.

[skipshady]

Hmmm. I can tell you how to do it on Yahoo, but that wouldn't be any help to you.

[Premium Hamatachi redded]

Automatically reply to incoming messages while out of the office
Some of the content in this topic may not be applicable to some languages.

This feature requires Microsoft Exchange.

On the Tools menu, click Out of Office Assistant.
Click I am currently Out of the Office.
In the AutoReply only once to each sender with the following text box, type the message you want to send to others while you are out.
If you want, create rules to manage your incoming mail.
How?

This feature requires Microsoft Exchange.

On the Tools menu, click Out of Office Assistant.
Click Add Rule.
Under When a message arrives that meets the following conditions, specify the conditions of the rule that the message must meet for the action to occur.
To specify more conditions, click Advanced, select the options you want, and then click OK.
To specify that this rule must be the last one applied, select the Do not process subsequent rules check box.
For Help on an option, click Help.

Under Perform these actions, select the options you want. You can select more than one option.
Note If you specify that a message must be deleted, rules that follow the delete rule in the list of rules in the Out of Office Assistant dialog box do not affect the message.

[Bonnie Lass]

You wouldnb't believe it, but my copy of Outlook doesn't have the out of office assistant. Maybe I didn't install it right, but it's not there. And it is the full version and not just Express.

Since I'm leaving town within the next four hours, I'm just going to get a friend to check my e-mail while I'm out.

Thanks for your help. I'll definately investigate this more when I get back.