10th April 2002

"Gretchen Pirillo is currently visiting Boston." Unless she's bringing home a souvenir, I don't need to see that autoresponder. In Outlook, it's simple enough to automatically delete these "Out of Office" messages. Fire up the Tools Wizard (found in the Tools menu), click New | Check messages when they arrive [Next] | which is an Out of Office message [Next] | delete it [Next] | Finish. You may also select the "permanently delete" option or add any exceptions to the rule before finishing. Name it, enable it, and you're done. What about in Outlook Express? Well, there's a few more steps. Click Tools | Message Rules | Mail. Place a checkmark in the "Where the Subject line contains specific words" field. Click the resulting blue hyperlink and add "Out of Office" and "Out of the Office" to the Words field. Select the "Delete it" Action, name the rule, and you'll never be bothered with those autoresponders again. Of course, instead of deleting it, you could always move it to a temporary folder. That way, you're not left wondering why Gretchen didn't come home all weekend. Not that this has ever happened to me...