Set and Enable Vacation Out of Office Away Message On Outlook

So we switched from Lotus Notes to Outlook and I just so happened to be going on vacation that afternoon.  How do I set up and enable my away message on Outlook telling people I will be out of my office and away from the computer?  It is easy to set up an activate your away message on Outlook, though I found it much different than Lotus.

This works on Outlook 2010 and probably other versions as well. The only thing I am not sure of is if this works on home versions on Outlook or only on business / commercial versions. Keep reading though to find out.

Step 1

OK, so you opened up Outlook and you are looking at your inbox or sent emails or trash bin or wherever, look up to the top left of your PC screen and click the FILE tab

Step 2

When you click the file tab you will see a bunch of choices down the left column. Click on INFO  (by mistake I kept clicking on OPTIONS thinking that was the right one, so be sure to click on INFO) see image below

Step 3

Just to the right another list of options will open up. Click on the button that reads “AUTOMATIC REPLIES (OUT OF OFFICE)”  (see image below)

Step 4

The “Automatic Replies” window opens up, click the radio button at the top that says “SEND AUTOMATIC REPLIES”  This is important as now your Outlook will now start replying that you are out of office. If you don't do this, no one will know you are away.

  If you already have your out of office / away message set up, then just save and you are done... if not, and you need to create your away email, keep reading.....

Step 5

Then, look just below this. There are two tabs where you can review the message that will be sent to both people inside your network / company (ie “INSIDE MY ORGANZIATION”)  able  or outside network / company (“OUTSIDE MY ORGANIZATION” tab”)

Click the INSIDE MY ORGANIZATION tab and enter the specific message that you want sent to everyone within your network  / company.  Then do the same for the message that you want sent only to people outside of your network / company.  I generally keep them the same but you might have a good reason to make them different.  

I hope that helped you to create and activate your out of office message on Lotus

If You ever want to change the color of your red and unread emails, I wrote a post on how to change their color on Outlook