Wouldn't it be nice ... ?
If you are like me, you receive alot of email everyday. Since you are probably not sitting around just reading email all day, problably not able to answer them all right away. Still it would be nice for people to have some response meantime.
Create message
The easiest way to do this is to use Notepad in your Accessories folder
(START>Programs>Accessories>Notepad). Open the program, click "File" menu and then click "New".
The type in the response that you want to be emailed while you are away. Write something like:
"Hi and thanks for your e-mail. I am out of the office between (type in the dates you will be away). I won't be checking e-mail during that time. Rest assured that I have received your e-mail and it is safely in my inbox. I'll get back to you as soon as possible after my return."
Next you'll want to save the auto-response file to your hard drive. Let's call it "outofoffice" and place it in a folder called "email-files" on your main hard drive.
At the top of the window where you created the response e-mail, click the "File" menu and choose "Save As". A dialog box will pop open.
Create a folder called "email-files" to keep the auto-responder e-mail file in. Click on the pulldown box at the top of the dialog box and choose the "C:" drive. Then click on the "create new folder" icon (which looks like a file folder with a star exploding on its edge) at the top of the dialog box. A highlighted folder named "New Folder" will appear. Rename it to "email-files" and hit your "Enter" key. Then double click on the newly created folder to go into it. Make sure it says "outofoffice" in the "File name" field. Click the Save button. Your auto-responder file is now ready to go.
Save your response message in this new folder. It will be created as a TXT file. So you'll end up with a file called outofoffice.txt in the "c:\email-files" folder.
A note to advanced users, you could also create the message in HyperText MarkUp Language as you would a Web page.
Use message in a rule
In Outlook Express, click the "Tools" menu, click "Message Rules" and choose "Mail". A four-part dialog box will pop up.
Under "1. Select Conditions for your rule" scroll to the bottom of the list and add a check mark to "For all messages".
Under "2. Select Actions for your rule", check off "Reply with message".
Under "3. Rule description" the follow items will now be listed:
Apply this rule after the message arrives
For all messages
Reply with message
You'll notice that the word "message" in the last line is underscored. Click on it and a dialog box will open. In the "files of type box", choose "Text (*.txt)".
If all goes well your "outofoffice.txt" file will be there. If not click the pulldown menu and choose the "C:" drive, then go into the "email-files" folder. Select the "outofoffice.txt" file and click the "Open" button.
You'll go back to the "New Mail Rule" dialog box that you created the rules in. Under the item "4. Name of the rule" enter a description of what the rule does. You can simply call it "Out of the Office".