Whenever you are away from the office for a day or more it’s a good practice to setup an Out of Office reply. So whenever your inbox receives an email while you are away the sender will be notified you are away and will not be able to respond. Your message may refer the sender to other resources such as coworker emails or a website. The bottom line is you are letting people know what to expect and they don’t assume you are not responding.

1. In Outlook, choose the FILE tab.

2. Select Automatic Replies.

3. A dialogue box for automatic replies will be displayed.

4. Change the setting to Send automatic replies.

5. You will have the opportunity to type the same or different messages for inside and outside County government. Type your message in the box as you want it to appear in the automatic reply. Click on the Outside My Organization tab and enter that message.

6. Optionally you can set up a message in advance using the Only send during this time range. If you don’t select that feature Outlook will begin sending auto replies with your message right away.

7. Click on OK.


Don’t forget to turn on your Automatic Reply when you return. You do this by…

1. In Outlook, choose the FILE tab.

2. Selecting the Turn Off box next to the Automatic Replies feature.