You might need to set out of office replies on Outlook if you are going out of town, or you just would not be available to reply to your emails. This way, anyone who sends an email will get a response letting them know you are currently out of the office. This is a great feature that ensures that you don’t leave people waiting for a reply.
Luckily, Microsoft outlook enables you to create custom replies that would be sent as a reply to anyone who sends you an email automatically. You also have the ability to specify custom date periods and time that the application can step in and begin to handle your emails for you. We will guide you through the process of setting your out of office replies on Outlook.
How to Set out of Office Replies on Outlook
Here is everything you need to do to set ut “Out of Office” in your “Outlook” email reply.
Out of Office Replies for Exchange Accounts
In case you are in a business environment, and your organization uses Microsoft exchange, then you can easily set the out of office replies in Outlook for your email address. To do this, follow the steps explained below.
- First of all, launch the Outlook app on your computer.
- Then, click on the tab that says File at the top, and you will see different options. Select the option that reads Automatic Replies (Out of Office). If you can’t see this option, don’t worry. Just skip to the next section to learn how to do the task.
- Next, you will see a box on your screen, letting you fill information in different fields. To send out automatic custom replies, you are going to need to fill in the fields as the following.
- First, enable the box that says Send automatic replies at the top.
- Then, tick-mark the Only send during this time range box. After doing this, select the from and to dates, which is the period you would be available to respond to your emails.
- In case you want your reply to be only sent to those who are in your organization, click e custom replies to be sent to only those in your organization, just click on the other tab that says Outside My Organization.
- Then type in the response you want to automatically send in the box given on your screen. You can also use the formatting tools to format and change the style of your text.
- Once you are done with this, just click on OK to save the changes.
Following this, Outlook will now auto-send your predefined custom message to anyone who sends you an email during your specified period.
Out of Office Replies For IMAP/POP3 Accounts
Many general users of Outlook use the IMAP or POP3 accounts. This is because it usually includes your Gmail and other email accounts. In case you are one of its users, the method explained above would not work for you. You will need to create a rule so that it can send out automatic replies.
Luckily, creating these custom messages as well as these automated rules is quite simple. Follow our guide below to do this.
- Launch Outlook on your computer and select the New Email option at the top. This will open the normal email compose window where you should type the email you want Outlook to automatically send.
- Then, click on the File at the top and select Save As. Enter a name for your out of office reply template and choose Outlook template from the Save as type on the dropdown menu and click Save.
- You can now close the email compose window and select No when it asks if you want to save the changes.
Now, to set up the auto-reply rule, follow the steps below:
- Start by clicking on the Home tab, then select Rules, and then choose Manage Rules & Alerts.
- In the Email Rules tab, click on the New Rule to create a new rule.
- Then, select Apply rule on messages I receive and select Next.
- Afterward, select the received in a specific date span condition and click on the link in the large white box.
- Then, checkmark both the After and Before checkboxes and specify the date range in which you would not be able to respond to your emails and then hit the OK, followed by Next.
- Checkmark the reply using a specific template and click on its link.
- Then, select the email template you created earlier, click on Open, and then select Next.
- You also have the option of applying any exceptions if you want and then click on Next.
- Finally, enter a name for your new rule and click on Finish.
You should also learn how to configure Cox Webmail to work with Outlook here.
Conclusion
You can see that setting up out of office replies is not difficult and can be done in a few minutes. Now, you can leave the office without bothering about the emails sent in your absence. Let us know in the comments if you have any challenges following this method.