Setting up an Email Auto-Reply
You may find it useful to set up an automatic response to incoming email messages if you are not going to be able to deal with them for a while. Before you do though, please read our good practice guidelines on what to include in your message.
This page contains instructions for setting up an auto reply for:
If you have any difficulties please contact insrvConnect for help and advice.
Pegasus Mail v4 (Windows)
1. In Pegasus Mail, select Tools, Automatic Reply
2. Type the message that you wish people to receive automatically, for example,
I am unable to deal with your email at present. I shall contact you soon.
Regards,
Joe
3. Tick the box 'enable automatic replies' then click OK.
4. To remove the auto reply, select Tools, Automatic Reply, and remove the tick in the box 'enable automatic replies' then click OK.
GroupWise
Select Tools, Rules, New. Name your rule in the Rule Name box. In this case Out of Office Reply. Click the New Item button under When event is and select an event to trigger the rule from the pop-up list. For this case New item should be selected and the box next to Received should be ticked.
If you choose New item, Startup, Exit or User Activated you may click one or more sources for the item, e.g. Received and Posted. If you choose Filed item, Open folder, or Close folder, click the folder icon and choose the folder you require. Click OK. The folder name will be displayed.
Click one or more item types you want the rule to act on in the Item Types list. In this case the reply is to be sent to anyone who sends a mail, appointment, task or reminder note. If you want to add more specific detail to your rule, click Define Conditions. Click Add Action to choose the action you want the rule to perform. For this example select Reply and choose whether or not you want the original message to be included in the reply.
Type the message you want to be sent out as a response and click OK. This will return you to the New Rule window. You will see that a description of your action has appeared, in this case, Reply With Text. Click Save. This will return you to the Rules window.
If GroupWise does not allow you to save the rule, you will need to add an entry in the Subject box of the window if you are required to type in a message (e.g. when a Forward action is selected). Any rules you create will be listed here. In order for this rule to triggered, it must be enabled by checking the tick box.
GroupWise is designed to minimise the number of messages sent. For example, consider two GroupWise users, Eva and Mike. Suppose Eva has set up a reply rule which will trigger a message to be automatically sent when incoming mail or appointments are received. Under these circumstances, Mike will always receive the reply message from Eva for every appointment that he sends to her. However, no matter how many mail messages Mike sends to Eva, he will only receive one copy of the reply message from Eva in any two week period.
Thor
The auto reply function on Thor is called 'vacation'. You need to create two files using a file editor (here it is pico) and then invoke the vacation command. To turn off the vacation function, rename one of the files.
1. At the thor (root) prompt, type
pico .vacation.msg
2. On the first four lines of this file, type in the following information, replacing the Joe Bloggs mailname and personal name with your own personal details,
From: BloggsJ@cf.ac.uk (Joe Bloggs)
Subject: Automatic Reply
To: auto-reply-address
Delivered by: Joe Bloggs
3. Leave a blank line and then type in the message that you wish people to receive automatically, for example,
I am unable to deal with your email at present. I shall contact you soon.
Regards,
Joe
4. Save the file and exit by selecting X, then Y, then
5. At the thor (root) prompt, type
pico .forward
6. Type the following, replacing username with your own username
\username, "|vacation username"
7. Save the file and exit by selecting X, then Y, then
8. At the thor (root) prompt, type
vacation -I (note: that's a capital i)
9. To turn off the auto reply/vacation facility, rename the .forward file, type
mv .forward .forward.vacation
10. To turn the auto reply/ vacation facility back on, rename the .forward.vacation file, type
mv .forward.vacation .forward
then type
vacation -I
Good Practice
DO
- Keep messages as bland as possible. Say that you are currently 'unable to deal with this query' or that you are 'out of the office on business'.
- Redirect enquiries to a colleague's business telephone number so someone else can assess the enquiry and verbally inform the caller of a period of absence.
- Think very carefully about whether you want to reveal your job title to a wide audience if it sounds important.
- Be very careful with giving alternative contact details - only include them if the person concerned has agreed.
- Always prepare for your absence and warn key contacts in advance of your holiday.
DO NOT
- Say that you are away on holiday, out of the country, or specify when you are away from the office.
- Put alternative personal contact details on an 'away from office' message.
- Put home address details, home phone numbers or personal mobile phone numbers on messages.
- Put a colleague's personal contact details on a message.
- Put 'away' messages on home or personal email accounts.
For further information, please contact insrvConnect