9th July 2001
Ever stepped out of the office for the week, leaving your e-mails unanswered? Set up a quick autoresponder in Outlook Express to let everyone know that you've gone walkabout. Start by clicking Tools | Message Rules | Mail, then the "New" button to create a new message rule. In the first field, select "For all messages" (which is the last option). In the second field, choose "Reply with message." This is, of course, assuming that you've already created and saved a "reply" message of sorts; you can do that by simply a new e-mail message and saving it to a local folder. Name the rule and you should be good to go. Now, every message which enters your Inbox will be responded to with your template. Keep OE running while you're out and about and people will know you're not ignoring them. Take note that newsletters (like Lockergnome) will also be replied to. Depending on how these resources are configured to respond, you could be unsubscribed, or in the case of mailing lists, you could be banned from future participation because it's not looked upon kindly by some. Tailor the rules to your liking, of course. Outlook (proper) allows for exceptions, so you can spare newsletters and mailing lists. Rules are very powerful critters... so get to know them intimately.