Create Out of Office Replies
Have you ever forgotten to set your out-of-office reply in Outlook, and then had people emailing you while you were away? Well, fear no more! With absentify, you can enable automatic out-of-office replies, so that people will know you're away even if you forget to set-up the automatic reply yourself.
absentify will automatically send your desired out-of-office reply from Outlook during the time of your absence and once you’re back in the office, this feature will be turned off. This is calculated depending on your schedule and working hours.
The benefit of this feature is that you don’t have to continually set your out-of-office reply every time you take vacation because absentify will take care of that for you!
First, access this feature through "Your preferences" > "Automatic replies".
If the "Automatic replies" option isn't shown under your preferences, you'll need to enable the Outlook out of the office reply feature. Please contact your administrator to do so.
As soon as you see the "Automatic replies" option, you're ready to set up this feature.
Select the type of leave for which you'd like absentify to automatically send a reply whenever this leave shows up in your calendar.
Flip the toggle to view the templates provided.
You can also customize your out-of-office reply for each individual leave. You’ll also have the option to use placeholders so that your message will look just the way you want it.
Leave types include:
Home Office
Parental Leave
Sick Day
Unpaid Vacation
Vacation
There may be other types of leave given depending on the settings from your company's administrator.
Once you've selected the template for the leave type, you'll see two template options:
Inside organization template: This message will be sent to your internal contacts.
Outside organization template: This message will be sent to your external contacts.
If you decide you’d like absentify to send automatic out-of-office replies to external contacts, check the box for “Send replies outside your organisation”. Otherwise, check the box for "Send replies only to contacts".
If you'd like absentify to automatically send the same out-of-office reply every time you're scheduled to be away, we recommend using the variables.
To edit a template, simply edit the text in the text editor. Within your text, you can decide where the placeholders should sit in your out-of-office message. There are 6 available:
{{startTime}}: the time of day your leave starts
{{startDate}}: the day your leave starts
{{dateOfReturn}}: the day you'll return from your leave (we will automatically calculate this date for you, based on your schedule, holidays, and other absences)
{{timeOfReturn}}: the time of day you'll return from your leave
{{managerName}}: the name of your manager
{{managerEmail}}: the email address of your manager
If you decide to enter the "End date" manually, your automatic replies will be turned off as of that day and you’ll have to specify the time period again the next time you’re out of the office.
Whereas if you use the placeholders, absently will edit this automatically for you whenever you take a leave of absence of the selected type.
For example, if you use the placeholder {{startDate}} in your template, it will be replaced with the actual start date of your leave when the message is sent.
After editing your templates, click "Send test email" to send a test email to yourself and make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
Once you're happy with your template, click "Save" to save your changes.
From here, you can save a different template for each type of leave by selecting a new "Leave type template" from the top of the page.
If the automatic out of office reply can't be set for some reason, you'll get an email with the text that you can copy and paste manually into Outlook. To do this, copy the text from the email and go to "Settings" > "Mail" > "Automatic Replies" in Outlook. Paste the text in the text box and click "Save".
And that's it! Now you can relax on your vacation knowing that your out-of-office replies are taken care of. For more information, please refer to our other guides in the Help Center or share your ideas with us at feedback.absentify.com.
Here's how it works:
absentify will automatically send your desired out-of-office reply from Outlook during the time of your absence and once you’re back in the office, this feature will be turned off. This is calculated depending on your schedule and working hours.
The benefit of this feature is that you don’t have to continually set your out-of-office reply every time you take vacation because absentify will take care of that for you!
Let's get started:
First, access this feature through "Your preferences" > "Automatic replies".
If the "Automatic replies" option isn't shown under your preferences, you'll need to enable the Outlook out of the office reply feature. Please contact your administrator to do so.
As soon as you see the "Automatic replies" option, you're ready to set up this feature.
Configure your template:
Select the type of leave for which you'd like absentify to automatically send a reply whenever this leave shows up in your calendar.
Flip the toggle to view the templates provided.
You can also customize your out-of-office reply for each individual leave. You’ll also have the option to use placeholders so that your message will look just the way you want it.
Leave types include:
Home Office
Parental Leave
Sick Day
Unpaid Vacation
Vacation
There may be other types of leave given depending on the settings from your company's administrator.
Once you've selected the template for the leave type, you'll see two template options:
Inside organization template: This message will be sent to your internal contacts.
Outside organization template: This message will be sent to your external contacts.
If you decide you’d like absentify to send automatic out-of-office replies to external contacts, check the box for “Send replies outside your organisation”. Otherwise, check the box for "Send replies only to contacts".
Using the variables
If you'd like absentify to automatically send the same out-of-office reply every time you're scheduled to be away, we recommend using the variables.
To edit a template, simply edit the text in the text editor. Within your text, you can decide where the placeholders should sit in your out-of-office message. There are 6 available:
{{startTime}}: the time of day your leave starts
{{startDate}}: the day your leave starts
{{dateOfReturn}}: the day you'll return from your leave (we will automatically calculate this date for you, based on your schedule, holidays, and other absences)
{{timeOfReturn}}: the time of day you'll return from your leave
{{managerName}}: the name of your manager
{{managerEmail}}: the email address of your manager
If you decide to enter the "End date" manually, your automatic replies will be turned off as of that day and you’ll have to specify the time period again the next time you’re out of the office.
Whereas if you use the placeholders, absently will edit this automatically for you whenever you take a leave of absence of the selected type.
For example, if you use the placeholder {{startDate}} in your template, it will be replaced with the actual start date of your leave when the message is sent.
Send test email
After editing your templates, click "Send test email" to send a test email to yourself and make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
Once you're happy with your template, click "Save" to save your changes.
From here, you can save a different template for each type of leave by selecting a new "Leave type template" from the top of the page.
If the automatic out of office reply can't be set for some reason, you'll get an email with the text that you can copy and paste manually into Outlook. To do this, copy the text from the email and go to "Settings" > "Mail" > "Automatic Replies" in Outlook. Paste the text in the text box and click "Save".
And that's it! Now you can relax on your vacation knowing that your out-of-office replies are taken care of. For more information, please refer to our other guides in the Help Center or share your ideas with us at feedback.absentify.com.
Updated on: 22/02/2023
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