Creating rules to forward and reply to mails automatically
To open Outlook, click on the Windows start button and scroll down to the Outlook application.
Alternatively Outlook can be searched for in the search field.
Once opened, click on "File" in the top right corner.
Next, click on the gear and bell icon to open the rules settings window.
Click on "New Rule" to get started. After a rule has been created, more rules can be created and will be listed accordingly.
At the first screen, click next.
The most common rule would be to automatically reply to the sender to inform him/her that you are out of the office.
You will still be given the option to forward your mail to a stand-in colleague in the next step.
Select the option where the mail is addressed to you or in Carbon Copy.
If desired, more than one condition can be selected for a more advanced rule.
Next, select what should happen when the previous condition is true.
Here we select to inform the sender that you are currently unavailable.
Be sure to click at point 2, to create a draft of what your message should read.
The draft mail would appear as follow:
1 - Enter the Title
2 - Enter your message text
3 - Click on save (File -> save -> exit, can also be used)
4 - Close the draft window after having saved it.
Note how your rule now shows the Subject of your draft reply mail.
Still in the same window, also select the box (1) to forward your mail to a specific person or a task-ID and click on "specific person/public group" (2) to define where the mail should be forwarded to.
Search for the individual(s) and/or task-ID (1) and double click on the result (2) to add them to the "To" field (3).
Once done, click on "OK" (4)
Note that the changes has been made and click "Next".
If required, you can select if there are any exclusions you would like to set.
As an example, if you normally receive of mails from a task-ID, you can configure your rule not to send an automatic reply to the task-ID or specific person(s).
To specify the address(es), click on "Specific person/public group".
Your address book opens where you can search for the address(es).
One can right-click or double click on the name and add them to the list.
Back at the Rule creation wizzard, note how the changes has been made to your selection.
Click on "Next".
At point 1, give your rule a well descriptive name.
At point 2, your rule can be created without been activated.
Click in the box to set or clear the tick to activate or deactivate the rule accordingly.
Click on "Finish"
Once created, your new rule will be listed.
From here it can be edited for fine tuning, enabled or disabled, or be deleted.
The green tick means that it is active and applying the rule in real time.
Select "Apply" (1) and "OK" (2) to close the wizard.
