Out of Office E-mail Tips
This week's Computing Tip provides several tips on how to handle the volume of message that keep coming in while you are out of the office for an extended period of time.
Remember, if you have ideas for the Computing Tip of the Week, please send them to Pat Fellows.
Introduction
I have done lots of Outlook training in the last year, I have heard several workshop participants say, "I come back after being away for a few days and have so many email messages to deal. Is there a way to deal with this?" What you will find below are several tips on how you can manage your email while you are away.
Tip #1
Use the Out of Office Assistant in Outlook - The Out of Office Assistant allows the user to create an out of office message. This message is sent as a reply to incoming messages during your absence. It will only send one reply to each sender, even though a sender might email you several message while you are gone. For more information on how to use the Out of Office Assistant, check out the June 23, 2006 CTOW.
Tip #2
Use Rules to customize the way Outlook handles your email message - In the Out of Office Assistant there is an option to create rules that will be applied to incoming messages.
Click on the Add Rule button. When the Edit Rule dialog box opens, users can specify the conditions of the rule that the message has to meet for whatever action the user chooses to apply. In the example below, I added a sender to the From: box and set the action to Delete the message if it is from W-ARX.Maillist@noaa.gov. If you have more than one rule, you will want to check the Do not process subsequent rules check box.
Notice there is also an Advanced button, outlined in Blue. Click on that button for more options. In the example below, I set the dates to apply the rule for messages received for the dates I will be out of the office.
Click on OK, and then click on OK again to finish creating the rule. The rule will appear in the Rules box in Out of Office Assistant dialog box. See below.
To finish, click on OK.
Tip #3
Turning Out of Office Assistant Rules On or Off - Users don't have to recreate rules in the Out of Office Assistant, these rules can be turned on and off. If you had a rule that needed to be applied when you are gone for an extended period of time, but not when you are only gone for a day, you can turn it on or off depending on the situation. In the Status Box there is a check box next to each rule. If you don't want the rule applied during your absence, just un-check the check box. To turn it back when you are out of the office, put a check in the box.
Tip #4
Access your mailbox remotely - Use Outlook Web Access (OWA) to check your mail when you are away from your office. If you have never used OWA, check out the May 25, 2006 CTOW. There is also a newly posted OWA manual on our new Outlook web site.
Tip #5
Best Wishes to everyone and have a safe and happy holiday season!