Datasheet

Letting the Out of Office Assistant Handle Mail While You’re Gone
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What to do if you have a POP3
or IMAP e-mail account
Well, okay, not everyone has an Exchange network. So not everyone can just
wiggle their fingers and call the Out of Office Assistant to take over when
they’re away from their desk. Assuming you don’t have an HTML account,
and that you at least use POP3 or IMAP, well, you can at least do something
to handle e-mail when you’re away.
Some HTML (Web-based) e-mail accounts provide simple ways to handle
incoming e-mail, so you might be able to use a Web interface to set up a
system.
Here’s the basic plan: You create a plain text message and save it as a tem-
plate. Then you create a rule that uses the template to generate outgoing
messages while you’re out of the office. So here’s stage one, creating the
template:
1. Choose File➪New➪Mail Message.
A new mail message for pops up.
2. Choose Options➪Format➪Plain Text.
The message is changed to plain text rather that HTML format. Plain text
means you’re not going to be able to apply any formatting, but you can
at least get your message out, as you can see in Figure 1-7.
3. Type the message you want people to get while you’re gone.
Outlook, being a bit of a control freak, keeps track of each and every
e-mail you receive while you’re gone, and sends the reply only once to
each one, even if somebody sends you a bunch of e-mail. So keep that in
mind when you design your message.
4. To save the message as a template, click the Microsoft Office Button
and choose Save As➪Save As.
The Save As dialog box pops up.
5. In the Save As Type drop-down list, select Outlook Template.
6. Type a filename for your template, like Out of Office, and click Save.
7. Close the message.
Because you saved your message as a template, and you don’t want to
send it to anyone just now, close the e-mail message and do not save any
changes.
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