Question: Can you tell me how to set up an automatic reply to e-mails in Outlook Express? I have seen this when people are on vacation, etc. but I cannot find how to do this in the Help directory. Thanks!

NOCC: Microsoft would prefer that you buy Outlook, which adds a few features, including an Out of Office Assistant to help automate the process. Outlook is usually installed as a part of the MS Office suite.

Outlook Express, the free sibling of Outlook, contains tools that will let you build – or as Microsoft puts it, “simulate the functionality of” – an Out of Office/Vacation Auto-Response, but it is more involved. You have to create a response text file, and build a new message rule that triggers that response to be sent. A fair amount of searching turned up an MS article entitled “Out of Office Assistant Is Not Available in Outlook Express.”

Depending on who will be include in your automatic replies, which depends on the rule you create, security considerations should dictate caution when it comes to the content of your message. You will need to read about and understand how the Rules functions work in order to do this well.

The away message

Start Outlook Express. Under the “File” menu at the top, go to “New” and then “Mail Message.”

Move the cursor to the message area, type what you want to use as an Out of Office message, click “File,” and then click “Save As.” Enter “autoreply” for the mail message in the File name box, find the folder where you want to save the message, and then click “Save.” Close the message window.

The mail rule

Under the “Tools” menu at the top, go to “Message Rules” and then “Mail.”

Look at the top of the new window that pops up. If you don’t see the title “New Mail Rule,” select the “Mail Rules” and click “New …”

For a personal e-mail account, it usually makes sense to reply only to messages from people you know.

In the top box, click/check the box next to “Where the From line contains people.”

Alternatively, if you want anyone who writes to get an automatic response, scroll down the list and check “For all messages”.

In the second box, scroll down and check “Reply with message.”

In the third box, click on the “contains people” link.

Type the e-mail address, or select an entry from the address book, for someone who should receive the auto-reply. Click Add. Repeat this step for everyone who should get your message. When you are done, click “OK.”

Now click the “message” link. Find and highlight the “autoreply.eml” file you created in the first step. And click “Open.”

In the bottom box, type something like “Vacation Auto-Reply” and click “OK.”

Click “OK” one more time and you have an auto-responder.

Back on the job

When you get back from your vacation, turn off the auto-responder by pulling down the “Tools” menu at the top. Then go to “Message Rules” and “Mail.” Under the “Mail Rules” tab, uncheck your “Vacation Auto-Reply” filter and Click “OK.”

~ Jim Sanders, Vice president, NOCCC

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