12th September 2002
Question: Why is it that when I set a rule in my Outlook 2000 to "reply using a specific template" if someone e-mails me twice then they only get one response?
Answer: This is actually built-in to the design of Outlook. This is outlined in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - Q196718. "The Rules Wizard rule to reply using a specific template is designed to send the reply only once to each sender, during a session. This prevents Microsoft Outlook from sending repetitive replies to a sender from whom you receive multiple messages. This behavior is the same as that of the Out of Office Assistant. During a session, Outlook remembers the list of users to whom it has responded. Restarting Outlook deletes this list, resetting the rule to fire again for each sender." This is actually a good thing, as it will help prevent e-mail system loops.