Outlook allows automatic “Out of Office” responses to email, but I would like to send automatic “Out of My Mind” replies to all email messages I receive. How can I do that?
Instructions for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Outlook | Tools | Rules and Alerts
Select “Check messages when they arrive”
On the Step 1: Select Conditions page, do not choose any option. Click Next.
You will be prompted with a question “This rule will be applied to every message you receive. Is this correct?” Answer “Yes”
On the Step 1: Select Action(s) page, check “have server reply using a specific message”
Under Step 2: Edit the rule description (click an underlined value), click on the underlined wording “a specific message”
A new email message will open.
You may leave the To field blank.
In the Subject line, type the automatic phrase that you want to send to all users (such as “Out of My Mind Notification”).
Optionally, you may include a message also.
Close the message.
You will notice that the underlined wording which used to read “a specific message” has now changed to be the subject of the email you just typed.
Click Next.
Under the “Are there any exceptions?” page, you may leave all options blank, or you may choose to refine the settings (such as checking “Except if from people or distribution list” and specifying the boss, perhaps?)
Click Next.
On the last page, Finish Rule Setup, be sure that the check box “Turn on this rule” is checked. If you want to send the reply to all email currently sitting in your inbox, check the “Run this rule now” option.
Click Finish.