If you don't plan on checking your email for a while, whether you're going on vacation or to a busy conference, you'll want to set up an out of office message.
These handy automatic responses let your colleagues know they shouldn't hold their breath waiting for a reply, and can inform others about who to contact with their urgent concerns. Outlook gives users the option to only send responses to people within your organization and send alternate messages to those who don't work at the same company.
You can also set a start and end date, so the messages will begin sending the moment you leave the office and stop automatically. Here are step-by-step instructions for setting an out of office reply. Write the message you want sent to your coworkers. You may want to suggest other colleagues that your coworkers should reach out to in your absence.
Click OK. To send responses to senders outside of your organization, click Outside My Organization and then fill in a separate message. To set a time range for your out of office message, click "Only send during this time range" and select parameters. Now your colleagues will receive your out of office reply when they contact you, and they'll also be notified that the reply is set when they add you to an email. Laptop Mag. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer.
This article applies to: Outlook for Windows. Send automatic "Out-of-Office" replies from Outlook for Windows. If you will be out of the office or otherwise away from your email , people who send you messages may wonder why you haven't responded. Outlook's Out of Office assistant lets you create a reply that will be sent once to each person who sends you a message. You can choose to include and exclude people who fall into three categories:.
Given the amount of unsolicited and possibly unwelcome email we receive, we generally recommend that you do not send auto-replies to everyone in the world. This would open you up to responding to spam or marketing messages, which would confirm to the sender that they had reached a valid address, and you would most likely start getting even more junk mail.
The auto-reply function lives on the Exchange server, so you do not need to leave Outlook running on your computer for it to work. Your messages will be delivered to you exactly the same way whether you have auto-reply turned on or off. How can we help? Search IT Cornell Go. The following link will take you to a Microsoft help page: Send automatic "Out-of-Office" replies from Outlook for Windows. Outlook for Windows Articles see all. Selecting a language below will dynamically change the complete page content to that language.
KB Articles: KB Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8. Warning: This site requires the use of scripts, which your browser does not currently allow. Use automatic replies to tell people you won't be responding right away to their email messages. Automatic replies are sent once to each sender.
Note: If the instructions don't match what you see, you might be using an older version of Outlook on the web. Try the Instructions for classic Outlook on the web. Sign in to Outlook on the web. Select the Send replies only during a time period check box, and then enter a start and end time. Rules also allow you to forward emails to another account, mark messages as read, or move them to a folder automatically. For more information on working with rules, see Manage email messages by using rules.
When you click File in Outlook, you should see a screen that looks something like this:. If you see a button that says Automatic Replies , see Send automatic out of office replies from Outlook. Otherwise, use the following steps to create a template to reply to messages and set up Outlook to reply to every message you receive. Click Save. You can create a new template every time you're out of the office or reuse an existing template. Now you're ready to use that template to create your Out of Office rule.
Under Start from a blank rule , click Apply rule on messages I receive and click Next. To reply to every email message you receive, leave the Step 1 and Step 2 boxes unchanged and click Next again.
Additionally, Outlook must be running and configured to check periodically for new messages. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info.
In the Automatic Replies box, select Send automatic replies. Optionally, set a date range for your automatic replies. This will turn off automatic replies at the date and time you enter for the end time. Otherwise, you'll need to turn off automatic replies manually.
Note: If you don't see Automatic Replies , use Rules and Alerts to set up your out-of-office message. On the Inside My Organization tab, type the response that you want to send to teammates or colleagues while you are out of the office.
Note: Sending automatic replies to anyone outside my organization will send your automatic reply to every email, including newsletters, advertisements, and potentially, junk email. If you want to send automatic replies to those outside your organization, we recommend choosing My contacts only.
Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback? The more you tell us the more we can help. Can you help us improve? Resolved my issue. Clear instructions. Easy to follow. Manage email messages by using rules. If you don't see the Automatic Replies button, you might need some extra help to get started.
In the Automatic Replies window, select Send automatic replies. For more on setting up and customizing your 'Out of Office' reply, go to aka. Related topics. Set up automatic replies and inbox rules. Next: Using email signatures in Outlook. Related topics Set up automatic replies and inbox rules. Outlook training. On the Tools tab, select Automatic Replies. Select Send automatic replies for account " your account ". Under Reply once to each sender within my organization , enter your automatic reply.
To set the start and end dates, select the Send replies during this time period checkbox, and enter the start and end dates and times. Note: When you check this box and set start and end dates and times, your out of office replies will turn off automatically when the end date and time occurs. To set options for replying to people outside your organization if it is enabled by your Exchange administrator , select Send replies outside my organization , then select Send only to my Contacts or Send to all external senders , and under Reply once to senders outside my organization , enter your automatic reply.
Clear the Send automatic replies for account " your account " checkbox. The New Outlook for Mac does not currently support rules for automatic replies for these account types.
Above the Account Description on the right, the account type is listed. Note: The Default Account information displays by default. At the bottom-left corner of the navigation pane, select Mail. On the Tools tab, select Out of Office.