Perhaps you've received them. Those "out of office" email messages that some people manage to automatically send when they're on vacation. How do they do that? How can you do it? And, more importantly, how can you do it so you don't bombard some poor soul with a thousand copies of the samemessage that says "I'm on the beach in Maui and you're not!"?

This article will reveal the secrets of the "out of office" message, also known as a "vacation" message or an "email autoresponder." You'll find that they're actually pretty easy to set up, once you know how to do it. You'll learn what makes an effective out of office message. And you'll learn how to avoid the pitfalls that can generate ugly email loops.

What is an out of office message?

An out of office message is an email message that is automatically sent only once to each person who emails you while you're away. An out of office message says something to the effect of, "I'm out of the office from now until whenever. Here's what to do if you need to reach me, and/or here's whois covering for me while I'm away."

Why bother at all? Because many folks now expect a near-immediate response to important email, and thus may get bent out of shape when they email someone who's away and don't hear back for days or weeks. Out of office messages provide a simple, effective way to avoid the confusion and frustration that results when email appears to go unanswered.

The trap

"Aha," you might be thinking. "Now I get it.I could just set up a simple rule in my email program to automatically respond to everyone who emails me with a canned response. That's easy -- I know how to use rules and filters."

Watch out! This is a trap!

If you set up an autoresponder message on your email program, several undesirable things will happen.

1. You'll have to leave your email program running and automatically downloading your mail while you're away. That means that if your computer gets turned off, your out of office messages will stop getting sent.
   
2. If your machine is downloading mail the whole time you're gone, it means you won't be able to use a Web-based email tool to check your new messages while you're gone. (Now, if you're on vacation, this might be a good thing, but if you're on a business trip, perhaps not so good!)
   
3. A rule in your email program doesn't have any way to tell the difference between a message sent personally to you, and a message sent to an email list. This can lead to a situation where your autoresponder gets a message from an email list, sends the out of office message back to the list, you get a copy of the response because you're on the list, your autoresponder responds to the response, and before you know it, there's a massive email loop generating thousands of messages while you're blissfully sipping a Mai Tai.

How can you avoid this unpleasant situation? The trick is to realize that out of office messages need to be handled by your email server, not your email client.

Got that? Here it is again. Remember, sending and receiving email requires both an email server (usually "out there" on the Internet) that collects your mail, and an email client (like Outlook or Eudora) that runs on your computer, downloads mail from your server and lets you read, write and work with messages. Out of office messages need to be set up on your email server -- not in your everyday email client.

OK, so how do you go about setting up an out of office message on your email server? Well, the bad news is that depends on what email server software is running on your email server. Here are the most common scenarios for Northwest environmental organizations (and many other small nonprofits).

Email server scenario #1: Email accounts hosted by CrystalTech

Many Northwest environmental organizations host their Web sites and email accounts at CrystalTech. CrystalTech uses mail server software called IMail. (Many other major Web hosting providers also run IMail.) IMail provides an easy-to-use Web interface that allows to set up an out of office message. To access IMail's Web interface, just point your Web browser to mail.yourdomain.org. You should see the login screen below:

Log in with your full email address (user@yourdomain.org) and your email password. On the main email screen, click on the "Account Options" menu and choose "Change my vacation message."

Type your vacation message in the window and hit Save.

Voila! To disable your out of office message, simply return to this screen, delete the text of your message, and hit Save.

Email server scenario #2: Email accounts hosted by Microsoft Exchange Server

Some Northwest environmental groups run their own mail servers, most often using Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange Server has a solid out of office message feature. Even nicer, you can control the out of office message on the server directly from Outlook, if it's connecting directly to the Exchange Server. This feature is called the "Out of Office Assistant" and you can find it in the Tools menu:

If you don't see this entry in your Tools menu, you may be connecting to your Exchange Server via POP or IMAP. In this case, you can control your Out of Office message using Outlook Web Access -- ask your system administrator how to access it.

The Out of Office Assistant lets you create an out of office message, and turn it on and off. Not much to it.

Email server scenario #3: Email accounts hosted by another service provider

If you're not using CrystalTech or another service provider that uses IMail, and you don't have an Exchange Server in-house, you need to check with your email provider to find out how to set up an out of office message on their server. There's almost always a way - but you nearly always have to ask.

Tips for creating an effective out of office message

OK, so you've figured out how to create an out of office message What should you put in it? Here are a few suggestions:

• Clearly state when you left, and when you'll be back. Use specific dates, not "this Tuesday" or "next Friday."
  
• Indicate whether you'll be checking in at all while your away, and when you expect to be able to return messages sent to you.
  
• If appropriate, provide information on how to contact someone else at your organization to deal with urgent issues.
  
• Copy your email signature into your out of office message; most email servers don't automatically include it from your email client.