Replying Automatically When You Are Away

You can create a message to be sent automatically as a reply to anyone that e-mails you. This is ideal when you are away on vacation. It requires that you leave your computer on and connected to the Internet.

To create the automatic response message (PC only):

1. Click New Mail and create your message. An example would be, "I am away on vacation. I'll be back on x/xx/00. I'll get back to you when I return. You can leave the To box blank.
2. From the message's menu, choose File > Save As. Navigate to the location you want, type a name for the e-mail message, and click Save.
3. Close the message without saving it.

To tell Outlook Express to automatically send this message (both PC and Mac):

1. Choose Tools > Message Rules > Mail.(PC) or Tools > Rules (Mac).
2. Click New.
3. In the top section, check For all messages (PC) or All Messages (Mac).
4. In the next section, check Reply with Message (PC) or Reply (Mac).
5. For the PC, in the Rule Description section, click message, navigate to the location of the message you saved earlier, select the message file, and click Open. For the Mac, click Reply Text and type the text of the message you want to send.
6. Click OK twice.
7. On the PC, choose Tools > Options from the main Outlook Express menu and click the General Tab. Make sure to check the Check for New Messages Every … Minutes checkbox, enter the number of minutes, and click OK On the Mac, choose Tools > Schedules, select Send & Receive All, and click Edit. Under When, choose Repeating Schedule and for Every ... Minutes, enter the number of minutes and click OK. Close the Schedules box.