If you’re going on vacation, it’s very helpful to assign an automatic “out of office” response to your emails. These automated responses allow people who send you emails that you are not available to respond to their messages. Here’s how to set up an automated answer outside the office in the Microsoft Outlook desktop program and the web version.

How to install an out-of-office answer in an Outlook desktop application

To install automatic answers outside the office in the Microsoft Outlook desktop application, go to this File> Auto Reply> Send Auto Reply.

Note: The following steps are for users who have a Microsoft Exchange account. If you don’t see the words “Connect: Microsoft Exchange” at the bottom of your Outlook window, check out our article on How to install in Outlook with IMAP / POP3 account outside of office.

1. Open Outlook and click File in the menu bar. You can find this in the upper left corner of your window.
2. Then click Automatic answers (out of office). An automatic reply window will then appear.

   Note: If you are using an older version of Outlook, such as Outlook 2007, go to Tools> Assistant outside the office.

3. Next, click Send automatic responses.
4. Check the “Submit only during this time” box. Set a date outside the office. You can skip this step if you want to manually turn off automatic answers when you return to the office.
5. Then install the automated answer outside your office below Within my organization schedule. This will be an automatic response to the people in your company who will send you an email when you are away.

   Note: Outlook does not attach your signature when sending automatic replies. If you have a signature, you can put it under your message. If you don’t have one, check out our guide How to add an email signature in Outlook.

6. Set up an automated answer outside of your office below Outside of my organization schedule. This is for people outside of your company such as customers and suppliers. You can copy what you entered for it Within my organization or you can leave something else for people outside your organization. You can even check the “Auto Response …” box if you don’t want to send them an auto-reply when you’re away.

   Note: You can also assign automated answers outside the office to different people. Just click the Rules button in the bottom left corner and add a rule for each person or email subject.

How to install answers outside the office in the web version of Microsoft Outlook

If you use the Outlook web version, you can install the answers outside the office by navigating to the page Settings> View all Outlook settings> Mail> Auto Reply. Then activate automatic replies, write your message and click Save.

1. Go to your Outlook page. You can get there quickly by clicking this linkor go to a web browser and type outlook.live.com in the address bar.
2. So, if prompted, sign in to your Outlook account.
3. Next, click Settings sign. This is a cog icon that you can find in the top right corner of the page.
4. So choose See all Outlook settings. You will see this at the bottom of the right sidebar. In the Settings then a window will appear.
5. Select Mail click the table and then click Automatic answers.
6. click Enable automatic answers. You can then set your automatic reply date by checking the “Send replies in time only” box. You can skip this step if you want to manually turn off automatic answers when you return to the office, for example when you are not sure when to return. Otherwise, this option is much more convenient.
7. Write a message outside your office. This will be an automatic response to the people in your company who will send you an email when you are away.

   Note: Outlook does not attach your signature when sending automatic replies. If you have a signature, you can put it under your message. If you don’t have one, learn how to add an email signature in Outlook.

8. Finally, click Save.