Auto Responders

Matt Warren
Systems Analyst
(July 2001)

Auto-responders allow your email software to reply to some or all of your incoming email based upon a predefined set of "rules". Many people go on vacation every year and would like to have an automatic message sent to every email that arrives in their inbox. Auto-responders make this happen.

These instructions help you create an automatic reply for Outlook and Outlook express. Many other email packages have similar functionality. Your user manual should describe how to set up your individual email software for this feature.

Outlook screenshots (1-7t):
1. Choose Tools >Out of Office Assistant
2. Click Add Rule button
3. Click Reply with box, then click Template
4. Type your message. This is a sample.
5. Close the Template window, then click Yes
6. Choose Tools > Out of Office, then select your status (in or out of office) and hit OK

Feeling Brave?
You could create a rule to respond to all mail from your spouse with the message, "sorry, I can't talk right now, I have to get this report typed, I'll send you an email this afternoon...". This is much more involved than we can be in this article. The main rules wizard (7) is where you would start. Be careful, some rules cause your email to be rerouted, or even deleted!

Outlook Express (A-D):
1. Choose Tools >Message Rules >Mail
2. Choose New
3. Select conditions (i.e. All Messages)
4. Select Reply with Message
5. Open Notepad and create a .txt message file to be your default message.
6. Click the message link
7. Browse to select your message. Save.
8. Name your Rule and click OK