The Out-of-Office Assistant is missing
Out-of-office Assistant is for Microsoft Exchange mailboxes only. Look for it on the File menu is Outlook 2010 or on the Tools menu in older versions.
If you don’t have an Exchange mailbox, you'll need to replicate it's actions using Rules Wizard, or better yet, use your email server's "vacation reply" feature to send out-of-office replies. When you use Rules Wizard to send Out-of-office replies, Outlook needs to be running and checking mail regularly for the reply to be sent. Using your server’s “vacation reply” feature allows the response to be sent when the message arrives, not when Outlook downloads it.
Inbox and Outbox Assistant commands are grayed out
The Inbox Assistant and Outbox Assistant features are for Exchange mailboxes only and therefore, work only if you connect to Microsoft Exchange Server.
If you don’t have Exchange Server, you’ll need to use the Rules Wizard in Microsoft Outlook or check out the alternatives below.
Tools
An add-in for Outlook that allows you use define rules to move mail from your Inbox (or other folders) based on several criteria, including the age of the message. Auto-Mate fills this gap an enables you to apply rules to messages that have been in your Inbox for a given number of hours, days or weeks. Available in Standard or Pro Version 5.0. Supports Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010. Now available for Outlook 2010 64-bit. | |
Email Responder plugin for Microsoft Outlook is an out of office assistant. Auto reply with email away message templates. Change your status and out of office reply templates remotely. Change your free-busy status manually (Away, Out of Office, Vacation, Tentative, Custom) or use your MS Outlook Calendar or Windows Live Messenger availability status. Auto response to selected Contacts or Distribution lists only. Enable MS Outlook auto forward. Version 2.20 | |
Exchange/Outlook add-on to create custom replies, forwards, signatures -- inserting any type of boilerplate text into your message. Templates are stored in Outlook or Exchange folders and can contain scripting elements (in VBScript or ET's own script language) to build replies that use information from the incoming message. Various extensions can handle such tasks as mailing list subscriptions. For a rotating quote, download the Rotating Text template. Has some issues with Outlook 2002 -- make sure you get the latest update, disable RTF templates, and don't try to use ET as a custom action in Rules Wizard. | |
Integrates with Outlook to apply rules for inbound and outbound e-mail. Rules can be scheduled and can update data, route mail, run applications, and perform other functions. Can also schedule report deliveries. | |
Mail organiser for Outlook to replace the built-in Rules Wizard. Offers unlimited rule capacity (only limited by your computer hardware), quick folder find, attachment renaming, and Bayesian antispam mail filtering. |
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Last reviewed on Apr 12, 2012
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