How To Turn On Out Of Office Reply In Microsoft Outlook

If your job necessitates sending and receiving emails very often and also being out of station frequently, then you might find this Outlook feature quite interesting. Think of a situation where you are required to stay away from your office and want to let others know that you are away and unavailable. So how would you let them know about it?

Microsoft Outlook has a feature that automatically responds to emails with a message that says that you are unavailable to read incoming messages. The feature called Out-of-Office Assistant lets you send an automatic message during a defined period. This message can contain contact information or convey addition information regarding your absence to the recipients. However, in order to use this feature, you need to be using Exchange Server on your network.

Follow these Outlook Help guidelines to turn on Out-of-Office Assistant in your Outlook.

Instructions

• Launch Microsoft Outlook on your computer. Go to the Tools menu on the Outlook menu bar. From the popup menu, select the option Out of Office Assistant. From the dialog box, select the option I am currently Out of the Office. Now change the AutoReply option to Once per Sender and add your custom message. You can include details like when you will return and whom to contact in your absence, in your custom message. Once you have created your custom message, click the OK button.  
• Whenever you are away and are not accessing your email for an extended period, you can make use of the Out-of-Office Assistant. This feature is of great use as the sender would be able to know why the email wasn’t returned. This is one easy and convenient way to let them know that you are away.  
• Once you come back, you should turn off this feature in your Outlook. If not, Microsoft Outlook will continue to send this message every time you receive an email. To turn this feature off, go to the Tools menu and select the option Out of Office Assistant. From the dialog box, deselect the option I am currently Out of the Office. To confirm this, click the OK button. You have now successfully turned off the Out of Office Assistant feature.

If you have any doubts about the above mentioned steps, you may access the Outlook Help menu or get in touch with the Outlook Support team and get the needed assistance.