Outlook 2000 Out of Office Tool (2000 SR-1a)

[rcbjr2]

I am trying to find more information on using the Rules in the Out of Office wizard. I'm trying to figure out if I can further limit my auto response when I use the Out of Office wizard to only selected emails. The online Help isn't much help. Anybody know of any good sources on the web or maybe some books?? Thx. -Rich.

[StuartR]

In the Exchange Server version of Outlook you do this using the "Add Rule" button on the out of office assistant. You can filter on almost anything in the incoming mail (To, From, Subject etc.) and specify a wide range of actions.

StuartR

I just read your post again, it looks like you have already found the "add rule" button. What do you want to do with your rule?

[rcbjr2]

Yea, I have found the rule section. I'm looking for more help on what type of rules to develop and how to develop them. I suppose the easiest would be that I'd only like my out of office message (which is typed in the box above the rules buttons) to go to internal email address (my att.net email is forwarded to the the office, which is how I get all of my spam). I can't figure out how to do this. It looks like I might have to create a form reply instead of using the Out of Office message at the top of the dialog, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions?? Thx. -Rich.

[StuartR]

I have used the rules to prevent my standard out-of-office reply going to the distribution lists that regularly send me mails.

I create a standard OOO reply and then add rules for each of the Distribution Lists that writes to me. These rules have the "Do not process subsequent rules" check box set.

One approach would be to create a template message and use Reply with Template for users that match your selection. You create the template message by clicking on the [Template...] button, creating the mail and using File Save. I'm guessing that you can have a partial e-mail adderss in the From field - I haven't tried this.

An alternative that I have never tried might be to create a standard OOO message. Then create a rule with From matching your internal users and "Only Items that do not match these conditions" set on the advanced tab. Set "Do not process subsequent rules" on this tab. I think that it will match all users who do not match your internal addresses, so the OOO message will only go to internal users. I'm going to have to play with this a bit more before I'm sure.

Also there is a server side setting on the Exchange server that can control which SMTP addresses you send out of office replies to. This would then apply to all users in the Exchange organisation.

StuartR

[StuartR]

I just tried using a partial match on the From field on an out-of-office rule. It failed to match.

I really don't see how you can create a rule that will match all internal users.

StuartR

[rcbjr2]

Here is where I'm confused. I'm at the Edit Rule dialog. I can set some conditions on the top half (e.g., sent directly to me). But then I'm confused about which option to select in "Perform these actions". What if I just want the action to be: reply with the standard OOO message that I already typed in the AutoReply box? That doesn't seem to be an option. I'm looking for some manual on what all of these options do. Maybe I could copy my entire company's email list into the FROM box and only have my OOO message sent to those people. This might be what I want to do. But again, I can't figure out what to set in Perform These Actions after I set a condition. Thx. -Rich.

[StuartR]

If you want to send the standard OOO message then DONT tick "Do not process subsequent rules".

If you can put your entire office email list in the From part of a rule then the following may work.
<UL><LI>Check "Do not process more rules"
<LI>On the advanced tab check "Only items that do not match these conditions"[/list]I don't think you need to check any more options, although I put "Move to Inbox" into my rule sets just because it looks odd with no action at all.

StuartR

[rcbjr2]

Thanks. I'll try it. If I don't select something in Perform Actions, then the Rule won't take and I get an error. I guess that was my problem. I didn't think I could do something simple like put a copy of the email somewhere. -Rich.

[penglish]

At http://www.phmeg.org.uk/egroup.htm#OORsettings I have posted instructions on how to avoid sending OOR replies to Yahoogroups messages, which might help you get started.