All work and no play just isn't fun.
In times of being out of the office, whether for a conference, sales call or
vacation, we need to give messages to people
letting them know we are not in. Since
email is widely used today, we can use the "Out
of Office" function in Outlook to do this.
There are two ways to enable the "Out of Office"
feature.
1. Using Outlook Desktop. (From a
computer)
2. Using Outlook Web Access. (When you
have already left and forgot!)
Option 1: From the desktop
In Outlook, go to the Tools menu and select Out
of Office Assistant from the drop down menu.
Here you have the ability to enable or disable
the "Out of Office" feature.
Enable the Out of Office, type in your reply
message then click OK.
The auto reply will be issued even though your
computer is turned off. Your auto reply is sent
only once to each sender, even if you receive
multiple messages from that person.
Turning Off the Out of
Office Assistant
When you return to work and launch Outlook, you
will see an alert box reminding you that the Out
of Office Assistant is on and giving you the
option to turn it off. You may click Yes in the
alert box, as shown below,
or return to the Tools menu, select Out of
Office Assistant, and check the button, "I am
currently In the Office."
Option 2: Through Outlook Web Access
You also can activate the Out of Office
Assistant through Outlook Web Access (OWA).
This is a great tool if you must take an
unplanned absence from the office. If you use a
Mac, you must always use OWA, since Entourage
for the Mac does not offer an auto reply
function.
Once your logged into OWA, you will find at
the bottom of the left hand navigation pane, the
Options Tab. Click this tab, then enable
(or disable) the Out of Office feature just like
in Outlook.
