The newsletter from Montal - Five tips for creating Out of Office messages

Five tips for creating better Out of Office messages

Most users are familiar with the Out of Office facility in Microsoft Outlook but less aware of its advanced options. We hope the tips below help soften the blow on your first day back after a break.

Spending a few minutes drafting an Out of Office message may help to reduce the daunting backlog you find in your inbox upon your return. But understanding some advanced features could also help reassign tasks to colleagues and better manage your contacts’ expectations during your absence.

So the following five tips will ensure your Out of Office message works as hard as possible whilst you lounge around the pool sipping cocktails.

Tip 1: Writing a good Out of Office message

Don’t forget to include these three basic elements in your Out of Office message.

1) Dates of your absence. This will help the sender decide what their next step should be, whether to await your return or to direct their request elsewhere.

2) Reason for your absence. Tell your contacts whether you are away on a business trip, possibly with occasional connection to the office, or else completely incommunicado on a warm beach sipping cool cocktails.

3) Who to contact in your absence. Try to include the details of an alternative contact while you are away.

Tip 2: Create a rule to automatically forward all or some of your messages

You can create rules within the Out of Office Assistant by clicking on the “Add Rule” button. See Fig 1 (right)

For example, Outlook can check each incoming message against certain criteria and then automatically forward or redirect any email that matches those details to another e-mail account.

Fig. 1 - The Out of Office Assistant

Fig. 2 - Creating a rule to forward to a colleague

Fig 2 (left) shows how you could create a rule that forwards emails from your most important customer to one of your colleagues, thereby ensuring a prompt response whilst you are away.

Tip 3: Create a rule to move or copy emails to different folders

You could use Out of Office to create a rule that sorts emails in different folders, enabling you to address them by category upon your return.

For example, Fig 3 (right) shows how all messages sent directly to you could be moved to a folder called ‘Management’. This folder would be a subfolder of your Inbox. You might also create a second rule which moves all messages that are CC’d to your address into a different folder called ‘Low Priority’. These rules would help you prioritise your response to outstanding messages on your first day back in the office.

Fig. 3 - Creating a rule to sort messages in different folders

Tip 4: Create a rule to automatically delete certain emails.

Do you receive daily updates which will have expired or will no longer be relevant by the time you return to the office? If so, why not set Out of Office Assistant to automatically delete these in your absence and reduce at least a portion of your inbox.

Your criteria for these rules could be the subject line of the email or the details of the send of these messages.

Fig. 4 - Some new features available to users of Exchange 2007

Tip 5: New Users of
Exchange 2007

If you use Exchange 2007, you can further tailor your messages to senders inside and outside your organisation.

You will also have the option to specify an end date for the Out of Office reply, which removes the need for a sarcastic customer to remind you on your third day back at the office that you have still not deactivated it.

See Fig 4 (left)

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