How to create an autoresponder in Outlook Express

By Andy Walker

Question: How do I set up Outlook Express to send a message when I'm out of the office? —Jack B.

Answer: That's called an e-mail auto-responder (or auto-reply), and it's sort of the e-mail equivalent of an answering machine.

People tend to expect immediate responses to e-mail these days, and when they don't get them they feel like they are being ignored. That may not be a big deal for personal e-mails, but at work you don't want customers to feel slighted. Setting up an auto-responder is a good way of keeping both groups of people informed of your movements.

Be aware that there are some limitations. If you set up an auto-responder in Outlook Express, you will have to leave the computer on, the e-mail program running, and the system connected to the Internet. This will work if you have an always-on Internet connection, but you don't want to do it if you use a dial-up connection on a phone line. (Here are instructions for Outlook 2000 users, and for Outlook 2002 users.)

Setting up an auto-responder in Outlook Express is not too difficult. Here are some instructions and tips that should help you set it up. There are three parts to this process:

1. Creating the response message.
2. Creating an Outlook Express rule.
3. Linking the message to the rule.

Let's create the message first. The easiest way to do this is to use Notepad in your Accessories folder (Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad).

1. Open the program, click File menu, and then click New.
2. Type in the text of the message you want to be sent in response to messages that arrive while you are away—something like: "Hi and thanks for your e-mail. I am out of the office between (type in the dates you will be away). I won't be checking e-mail during that time. Rest assured that I have received your e-mail and it is safely in my inbox. I'll get back to you as soon as possible after my return."
3. This is your auto-response file so next, you;ll want to save it to your hard drive. Let's name it outofoffice and save it in a folder called email-files on your main hard drive (don't worry if you're not sure how to add a new folder&mdashinstructions follow in just a few more lines).
4. At the top of the window where you typed your auto-response message, click the File menu and choose Save As. A dialog box will open.
5. In that dialog box, create a folder called email-files to keep the auto-responder message in. To do this:
1. Click on the pull-down box at the top of the dialog box and choose the C: drive.
2. Then click on the Create New Folder icon at the top of the dialog box&mdashyou probably won't see those words under the icon until you put your mouse over it, so just look for a picture of a file folder with a star exploding on its edge, and click that. A highlighted folder named New Folder will appear.
3. Rename New Folder to email-files and hit your Enter key. Then double-click on the newly created folder. Make sure it says outofoffice in the File name field, and click the Save button.
6. Save your response message in this new folder. It will be created as a .TXT file, so you'll end up with a file called outofoffice.txt in the c:/email-files" folder. (A note to advanced users: You could also create the message in HTML as you would a web page.)

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