Introduction

Going on vacation? Taking a day off? You can set the out-of-office reply feature in Microsoft Outlook when you'll be away from your email and want to alert people to your absence. Make it easier on those emailing you to know communication will be delayed and who to contact while you're away.

Note: Automated responses will remain on until the end of your specified out-of-office period. If you chose not to determine a period, automatic replies would be on indefinitely until you turn them off.

Outlook Web Access (OWA)

1. Login to mail.utoronto.ca
2. Click on the gear icon located in the upper right corner of your Outlook inbox. Then select View all Outlook settings.
   
    
3. Choose Mail, then Automatic replies.
4. Select the Turn on automatic replies radio button.
   
    
5. To enable messaging for the duration of your out-of-office period, check Send replies only during a time period and set the Start time and End time you will be away from the office.
6. Type an out-of-office message of your choice.
   
    
7. When the details are entered, press Save to record your settings, or Discard to cancel the message creation.

Outlook on Windows

1. Open the Outlook desktop application.
2. Click File.
3. Select Automatic Replies.
   
    
4. In the Automatic Replies box, select Send automatic replies.
   
   1. Optionally, set a date range for your automatic replies. This will turn off automatic replies at the date and time you enter for the end time. Otherwise, you'll need to turn off automatic replies manually.
5. On the Inside My Organization tab, type the response that you want to send to teammates or colleagues while you are out of the office.
   
    
6. Select OK to save your settings.