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?
No need to continually set your out-of-office reply every time you take vacation; with absentify, you can enable automatic out-of-office replies. People will know you're away even if you forget to set-up your automatic reply.
absentify will automatically send your desired out-of-office message from Outlook during the time of your absence. As soon as you’re back in the office, this feature will be turned off.
To access this feature, navigate to 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 an admin, you can set this up yourself. Just follow these few simply steps outlined in our support guide.
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 to set up your automatically generated out-of-office reply whenever this leave type is tracked in your calendar.
Flip the toggle to view the templates provided.
You can customize your out-of-office reply for each individual leave.
The leave types provided will be those available within your organization.
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 organization”. 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. By using the variables, absentify automatically sends the same out-of-office reply every time you're scheduled to be away.
If you decide to use the variables, these will be automatically filled out for you based on the details of your leave tracked in absentify. There is no need to fill these variables out yourself.
Start date: when your leave begins
Start time: when your leave ends
Date of return: the day you'll return from your leave (we will automatically calculate this date for you, based on your schedule, holidays, and other absences)
Time of return: the time of day you'll return from your leave
Manager name: the name of your manager
Manager email: 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 {{DateOfReturn}} 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 the layout is to your liking.
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 for whatever reason, the automatic out-of-office reply can't be set-up, 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.
If you need any further help setting up this feature, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team or share your ideas with us on our Roadmap - we'd love to hear your feedback!
Install absentify in Teams
Create and share Outlook calendars
Mutual Sign-In with Microsoft
No need to continually set your out-of-office reply every time you take vacation; with absentify, you can enable automatic out-of-office replies. People will know you're away even if you forget to set-up your automatic reply.
Let's get started
absentify will automatically send your desired out-of-office message from Outlook during the time of your absence. As soon as you’re back in the office, this feature will be turned off.
To access this feature, navigate to 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 an admin, you can set this up yourself. Just follow these few simply steps outlined in our support guide.
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 to set up your automatically generated out-of-office reply whenever this leave type is tracked in your calendar.
Flip the toggle to view the templates provided.
You can customize your out-of-office reply for each individual leave.
The leave types provided will be those available within your organization.
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 organization”. 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. By using the variables, absentify automatically sends the same out-of-office reply every time you're scheduled to be away.
If you decide to use the variables, these will be automatically filled out for you based on the details of your leave tracked in absentify. There is no need to fill these variables out yourself.
Start date: when your leave begins
Start time: when your leave ends
Date of return: the day you'll return from your leave (we will automatically calculate this date for you, based on your schedule, holidays, and other absences)
Time of return: the time of day you'll return from your leave
Manager name: the name of your manager
Manager email: 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 {{DateOfReturn}} in your template, it will be replaced with the actual start date of your leave when the message is sent.
Send test E-mail
After editing your templates, click Send test email to send a test email to yourself and make sure the layout is to your liking.
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 for whatever reason, the automatic out-of-office reply can't be set-up, 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.
If you need any further help setting up this feature, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team or share your ideas with us on our Roadmap - we'd love to hear your feedback!
Related
Install absentify in Teams
Create and share Outlook calendars
Mutual Sign-In with Microsoft
Updated on: 22/09/2023
Thank you!