1 of 2 This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Click Add Rule in the Out of Office Assistant dialog box. Complete the section When a message arrives that meets the following conditions with your preferred filtering options. For example, you can forward an message from a specific person to your manager. Complete the section Perform these actions with your preferred filtering options. The Microsoft Outlook Out of Office (OOF) Assistant automatically replies to your while you are on vacation or unavailable to answer . A customized message is sent from you to the sender alerting her or him of your status. In this guide you will learn how to: From the Tools Menu, select Out of Office Assistant. Click I am currently Out of the Office. Type the message you want senders to receive in the AutoReply only once to each sender with the following text text box. Use your Internal and External Out of Office Assistant Create custom rules for your internal Out of Office Assistant Activate your external Out of Office Assistant Guidelines for information to include and exclude in your out of office reply Use the Out of Office Assistant Click OK. From this point on, all internal incoming messages will receive your automatic Out of Office message. This message will only be sent once per sender — not for every message from the same sender. When you return to work, Outlook will prompt you to turn off the Assistant. Add Rules to the Out of Office Assistant Rules are actions you set up that apply to incoming messages and meeting requests. Rules help you to automatically manage your while you are away Dates you are gone Contact Information Whether you will be checking Urgent issues contact name Alternate contact name Information to include in your message: Click OK if you do not need to customize the rules further. Otherwise, click Advanced to add additional filtering capabilities to the rules. Click OK.

2 of 2 This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Install the External Out of Office (OOF) plug-in at From the Tools menu, select External OOF Message. Select the Send External Out of Office Messages check box. Type the message you want senders to receive in the AutoReply only once to each external sender with the following text box. Click OK. Remember, you must have your internal out of office assistant on, otherwise your external out of office assistant will not be activated. Information to include in your message: Information you are comfortable giving out to unknown recipients. A co-worker’s name as a contact person. However, get their approval first. General information only. For example, do not put specific vacation information in your message; rather, put “I am not available.” Activate the External Out of Office Assistant Evaluate your External Out of Office Message Below are guidelines on content you should consider including in your External Out of Office message, as well as content to avoid. Remember, you and your External OOF message represent Microsoft to customers. Always be professional. Your vacation or out-of-town plans, dates, and locations. Your contact person’s alias, pager number, or cellular phone number. Instead, list the main number for that person. Information regarding your own or someone else’s medical leave or condition. References to intranet sites or documents. Product-related information. Product plans, code, code names, release dates, or timelines. Contracts or negotiations of any type. Budget or finance information. Personal information, including home phone numbers or address. Do NOT include: Do not include any confidential information, or information you are not comfortable sharing with the general public. You should not include the following: Note You can turn on your Out of Office Assistant from Outlook Web Access (OWA) or Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) with a mobile device. The External Out of Office Assistant automatically replies to messages from outside of the corporate network. This is a useful feature if you deal with customers and partners. Note External OOF messages will not update when Outlook 2003 is running in Exchange Cached Mode. To update your external OOF message, temporarily disable Exchange Cached Mode, update your external OOF message, and then re-enable Exchange Cached Mode. Outlook will then send your new external OOF message. Note When you sign into Outlook, you will be prompted to turn off your internal OOF, this also disables your external OOF.