How To Set An Automatic ‘I’m Away’ E-mail Reply In Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird.
A few days ago I posted a tutorial on how to set up an automated “vacation” (aka “out of the office”) reply for those folks who use webmail services for email (see, How To Set An Automatic Webmail ‘I’m Away’ Response). Today I am going to provide the same tutorial, but for those folks who use an email client for managing their mail – Outlook, Windows Live Mail, and Mozilla’s Thunderbird.
If you go on vacation (or otherwise won’t have Internet access for a while) and you have a vacation responder turned on, an automatic reply – with a message you’ve pre-typed – will be sent automatically to the Sender letting them know you will get back to them, just not right away. When you get back online again, you simply turn the feature off again.
[note: you would have to have an “always on” Internet connection, and leave your computer running while you are away.]
Outlook: In Outlook, you need to create a “Rule”; and this Rule tells Outlook what to do with an incoming message. We want the Rule to tell it to ‘send this reply to the Sender’.
Click on the image to go to Step 2. (The walkthrough is on About.com)
Outlook Express/Mail/Live Mail: Again, we will need to set a Rule, but we also need to create a .txt (text) file, containing our response.. so Step 1 is to open Notepad..
Click on the image to go to step-by-step tutorial. (The walkthrough is on About.com)
Thunderbird: Basically, you do the same thing as with the other clients – create a “Rule” – but in Thunderbird, it’s called a “message filter”
Click on the image to go to step-by-step tutorial. (The walkthrough is on am-novice.com)
* My thanks to TuneUp for reminding me.
ATTENTION: You have already seen the ads. “Black Friday” sales are everywhere. I want to remind you that this is the cyber-criminal’s favorite, and most active, time of year. It is the time to redouble your “paranoid common sense” and triple your vigilance for scams, e-mails links, making sure the payment portal is https://, etc.. ATTENTION
Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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How To Set An Automatic Webmail ‘I’m Away’ Response
You have probably seen one of these: you send someone an e-mail, and later, in your Inbox you see their reply. So you open it and it says, “I’m on vacation. Quit bugging me!”
Okay. Maybe not those words. Exactly. But you know what I am describing. Right? It’s an e-mail feature called ‘vacation responder‘ (aka “I’m out of the office”).
If you go on vacation (or otherwise won’t have Internet access for a while) and you have a vacation responder turned on, an automatic reply – with a message you’ve pre-typed (you do not have to say “Quit bugging me!”) – will be sent automatically to the Sender letting them know you will get back to them, just not right away. When you get back online again, you simply turn it off again.
Find the Webmail you use from the list below.
* Gmail
Here’s how to let people know you can’t respond right away:
- Sign in to Gmail.
- Click Settings along the top of any Gmail page.
- From the General tab, select Vacation responder on in the Vacation responder: section.
- Enter the subject and body of your message in the Subject: and Message: fields.
- If you’ve enabled a personalized signature in your settings, Gmail will automatically append it to the bottom of your vacation response.
- Check the box next to Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you don’t want everyone who emails you to know that you’re away from your mail.
- Click Save Changes.
* Hotmail
To make Windows Live Hotmail reply to incoming emails in your absence:
- Select Options | More options… from the Windows Live Hotmail toolbar.
- Follow the Sending automated vacation replies link under Managing your account.
- Make sure Send vacation replies to people who email me is selected.
- Type your desired out-of-office message under Enter the message you’d like to send while you’re away:.
- Possibly include approximate info on when you will be able to reply personally.
- Who to contact in the meantime or an alternative way of reaching you might also be appropriate.
- In general, keep the message simple. Something like “I’m currently unable to read my mail, sorry! Come February, I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, you can…” shall do.
- The subject Windows Live Hotmail uses for automatic replies is “Vacation reply”, by the way.
- If you frequently get mail from people not yet in your Windows Live Hotmail address book, make sure Only reply to your contacts is not checked.
- Click Save.
* Yahoo! Mail/Earthlink/Mindspring
To set a vacation response:
- Click Options in the upper-right corner of your Mail page. Then select Mail Options…
- From the list on the left, click Vacation Response.
- Check the box that says Enable auto-response during your vacation.
- Select start and end dates for your trip.
- Enter the day your vacation will start in the “”Auto-respond from”” field and the day it will end in the “”up until (and including)”” field.
- Enter a Generic Response. It can be up to ten lines.
- When you are finished writing your Generic Response, click Save Changes located near the upper-left corner of the page.
* AOL
AOL WebMail allows you to setup an away message, that will auto-reply with a custom message or a pre-set message that you choose, when you are away. This is extremely useful if you are on vacation and need to reply to someone who might email you.
1. Click the Settings link, located at the upper right of your AOL WebMail inbox.
2. Click the General link, located in the left panel.
3. In the Mail Away Message section, click the drop-down menu and select an appropriate away message. If you select Custom type your own personal away message in the text box provided.
4. Click Save.
[Note: if your webmail service is not listed here, don’t worry. The method is the same. Look for a “settings”, “options”, or “preferences” menu (those are all the same things, btw.).]
Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
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Gmail Quick Tip — Keyboard Shortcuts
The reason I am as fast on a computer as I am is my use of keyboard shortcuts to navigate, edit, and control the machine. (And, in the Realm of the Geek, one measure of your skilz is how much you can do without touching your mouse. Reaching for the mouse slows you down, and makes you look like a newb.)
I have a Gmail account (I think one or two of you may have one too) and one of the first things I did was to go into my account settings and enable keyboard shortcuts. Gmail always allows the standard editing shortcuts when you are composing (Ctrl + U for underscore, etc.), but many more are available.
To enable keyboard shortcuts, click “Settings” (upper right), and click on “enable”, and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save changes” button. That’s it. Done.
Now you can navigate, mark, flag, reply, etc. with a keystroke. Any time you need to refresh your memory of the various commands, enter a “?” and the list will open. To see the list of available shortcut commands now, click here.
Related:
Using Your Keyboard Instead Of Your Mouse*
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
post to jaanix
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Internet/E-mail Troubleshooting – JavaScript
JavaScript Makes The Web Go Round
This weekend I received a call for help with an e-mail problem. The person was getting errors when trying to access their webmail (online e-mail, such as Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail). Which had them quite upset naturally, but was really no problem at all, and was quite easily fixed with a few clicks of the mouse.
My caller’s errors all referred to JavaScript – which is (short version) a programming language used extensively on the Internet; mostly to make Web pages dynamic and interactive with the viewer. Many websites rely on JavaScript to function, and Gmail and Hotmail do too.
My caller’s computer was saying that JavaScript was “not installed”, but in reality, all that had happened was it had been somehow inadvertently “disabled” (aka “turned off”), and needed to be switched on again.
Tip of the day: enable (or, re-enable) JavaScript in your Web browser.
1) Open Internet Explorer and in the upper right find the gray gear icon “Tools” menu. Click it, and then click on “Internet Options”
2) Now a new window will open. Click on the “Security” tab (top), as shown below.
3) Click the “Custom level…” button.
4) Use the slider to scroll down the list of options until you come to “Active scripting“, as shown below.
5) Click on the “Enable” ‘radio’ button, and then click on OK, twice.
6) Close Internet Explorer and then re-launch (aka “Open”) it again.
Now JavaScript (should be) is enabled and functioning and you can surf the Web and access Webmail as you had before. Problem solved!
Today’s free download: Trillian Astra
More than three years in the making, Trillian is back with a slight name change and a slew of new features. The chat client now supports Google, MySpace IM, Skype, and Facebook, as well as AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC. It has both POP3 and IMAP e-mail checking.
Trillian now has deep hooks into Facebook and Twitter. It will automatically shorten URLs in your tweets, as well as allow direct messages, re-tweets, and replies. Twitter Trends can show up in your contact list, and you can get tweets to appear in tooltip form. Facebook features include news feed integration, Facebook Inbox checking, and synchronized message updating in addition to Facebook IM.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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Enable ShadowCopy On Home Editions / XP
From time to time Vista creates ’snapshot’ copies of your files with a service called “Shadow Copy”. This allows you to retrieve older versions of files you accidentally delete or alter.
To go back to a prior version of your file/document, you simply right-click on the file and select “Restore previous versions”, which can get you out of some nasty jams. (For more on recovering deleted files, click here.)
Shadow Copy is enabled on all versions of Vista, but Microsoft grants user access to these copies only in the Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. (Clearly as a method to try to sell more copies of the pricier Ultimate Edition.)
Tip of the day: Users of the “Home” editions of Vista can use Shadow Copy too.
The odds are pretty good that if you bought a new computer, and it came with Vista, it came with Vista Home Premium. I say that because if you walk into a store selling computers, I dare you to find the one that has Ultimate Edition on it. It seems to me that they all come with Home Premium!
Remember how I said Shadow Copy was “enabled” on all versions? Yes? Well, for owners of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic, the service is running, but you need a way to “interface” with it (sometimes called a “front end”). To do that, download and install ShadowExplorer, and gain some of Ultimate Edition’s functionality. This cool piece of software is free, but donations are accepted.
Today’s free link: People who are using Windows 2000 or XP can get an almost identical file functionality with FileHamster from Mogware. This program is designed for people whose talents lie in the Creative Arts, so you don’t ave to be a geek to use it. There’s helpful user forums, too.
Please note: This ability is by no means a substitute for regular system backups. This is for small “oopsies”, not recovery/restoration.
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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How to retrieve old copies of files- Ultimate style
From time to time Vista creates ‘snapshot’ copies of your files with a service called “Shadow Copy”. This allows you to retrieve older versions from files you accidentally delete or alter.
To go back to a prior version of your file/document, you simply right-click on the file and select “Restore previous versions”.
Using the Shadow Copy service is a far easier way to recover your files than opening a backup you’ve made, and can get you out of some nasty jams. (For more on recovering deleted files, click here.)
Shadow Copy is enabled on all versions of Vista, but Microsoft grants user access to these copies only in Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. (Clearly as a method to try to sell more copies of the pricier Ultimate Edition. Shame on you Microsoft; backup and recovery should be free.)
Tip of the day: Users of the “Home” editions of Vista can use Shadow Copy too.
The odds are pretty durned good that if you bought a new computer, and it came with Vista, it came with Vista Home Premium. I say that because if you walk into a store selling computers, I dare you to find the one that has Ultimate Edition on it. It seems to me that they all come with Home Premium!
Remember how I said Shadow Copy was “enabled” on all versions? Yes? Well, for owners of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic, the service is running, but you need a way to “interface” with it (sometimes called a “front end”). To do that, download and install ShadowExplorer, and gain some of Ultimate Edition’s functionality. This cool piece of software is free, but donations are accepted.
Today’s free link: People who are using Windows 2000 or XP can get an almost identical file functionality with FileHamster from Mogware. This program is designed for people whose talents lie in the Creative Arts, so you don’t ave to be a geek to use it. There’s helpful user forums, too.
Please note: This ability is by no means a substitute for regular system backups. This is for small “oopsies”, not recovery/restoration.
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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