Out of office messages are quite handy when you want to inform your colleagues that you won’t be available, for a certain period of time.

Actually, when someone send you an email, the system automatically replies back, with a predefined message written by you, to inform the user about the details of your unavailability.

Setting up the Out Of Office Message

To setup the out of office message, from within MS Outlook:

  1. Click on ‘File’
  2. Click on ‘Info’
  3. Click on ‘Automatic replies’
  4. Click on ‘Send Automatic Replies’
  5. If you want to enable automatic replies for a certain period of time, click on ‘Only Send during this time range’ and set the date/time you wish the auto reply message to be active.
  6. Click on ‘Outside My Organization’ or/and ‘Inside My Organization’ to setup different messages for your internal colleagues and external partners.
  7. Check the option ‘Auto-reply to people outside/inside my organization’ to enable auto replies.
  8. Select ‘anyone outside my organization’ if you want the message to be active for anybody, or set to auto-respond only to your contacts.
  9. Write the message you want your Colleagues to see, when they send you an email during your absence.
  10. Click on ‘OK’