Parker's Mailbox
~~Parker
Renaud, IT Manager, Colliers Keenan, Inc.
Out of
Office Assistant
If you are going to be away from the office for an
extended period, whether for an afternoon or for a week, you should
configure Microsoft Outlook to notify the people who send you e-mail
that you are not available. E-mail has trained everyone to expect an
instant response and if you do not reply quickly, the sender thinks they
are being ignored. With the Out of Office Assistant turned on, e-mail
correspondents will not expect a reply until the time you indicate you
will return. This is a very easy process in Outlook 2000.
<<editor's
note: The Out of Office Assistant is only available in the
Corporate/Workgroup version of Outlook. If you use the Internet
Mail Only version, you would have to create a rule with Tools>Rules
Wizard. For more info on this, see Parker's article in
Volume
2 of this newsletter>>
1. Open Outlook and click on Tools, then on
“Out of Office Assistant”
2.
Click on “I am currently Out of the
Office”.
3. In the box marked “AutoReply only once to each sender with the
following text”, type the message you wish everyone who sends you
e-mail to receive.
4. Next, click on “Add Rule”, and the “Edit Rule” dialog box
will open.. In the “Edit Rule” Box, you can add a rule to handle
e-mail received while “Out of Office Assistant” is on.
5. You can specify that e-mail that meets specific conditions are
handled in a specific way. As you can see form the screenshot, you have
many options to choose from. For example you can specify that e-mail
from certain senders or concerning specific subjects are forwarded to
another e-mail address.
6. By using the “Alert with” check box you can specify that
certain senders receive a special message. For instance, if someone in
you family sends a message, they could receive a return message letting
them know where you are and how you can be contacted. That is certainly
not something you want everyone to know.
7. Once you have set up your rules, click OK, then either add
another rule or click OK again if you are finished.
8. When you return to the office and open Outlook, you will see the
following dialog box: Just click yes, and Outlook will revert to the
“I am currently in the office” status.
Normally, there are many details to handle just before
you leave the office for a trip or vacation. To avoid forgetting
something, such as an e-mail rule, at the last minute, I recommend you
set this up ahead of time and leave the box “I am currently In the
office” checked until you are ready to leave. Then simply click “I
am currently Out of the Office”. This way you won’t remember,
halfway to the beach, that you forgot to forward your e-mail or have
Outlook let your family know where you are!
<<editor's
note: Understanding how the Out of Office Assistant and other
autoresponders work is really important, especially if you belong to
email groups online. Learning how to configure your autoresponder so it
does not include these groups is a MUST since the members of the group
get very unhappy when your autoresponder replies to EVERY message posted
in the group. Use your autoresponders wisely. >>
Parker Renaud is the one-man IT
department at Colliers Keenan where he manages 90 PCs on 5 servers.
|
,
