These instructions are only for Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP.
First, you need to create a template email that you will use as the auto response message. However, you must make sure you are not configured to use Microsoft Word as your email editor (since it will not allow you to save an Outlook Template file). You can check this in the following manner:
From the Tools menu, click Options.
Click on the Mail Format tab.
Make sure there is NOT a check next to "Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages"
Follow these steps to create a message template:
Open Outlook
From the toolbar, select "New Mail Message"
Enter your subject and paste the text of your auto response message in the email body
From the File menu, select "Save As..."
Under the "Save as type:" drop down, select "Outlook Template (*.oft)"
Outlook will default to the Templates directory, which will be easy to find later. Give your message a descriptive file name (i.e. "Out of Office Template") and click on Save
Close the message you have open, selecting "no" to any questions about saving changes
Now that you have created the template, you need to setup a rule within Outlook to respond to all incoming messages with your template message. The steps to create the rules are below:
Open Outlook
From the Tools menu, select "Rules Wizard..."
Click "New..."
Under "Which type of rule do you want to create?" select "Check messages when they arrive" and click "Next >"
Click the box next to "when received through the specified account"
In the "Rule description (click on an underlined value to edit it):" box, click on "specified" and select your email account. Click "OK" and click on "Next >"
Under "What do you want to do with the message?", check the box next to "reply using a specific template
In the "Rule description (click on an underlined value to edit it):" box, click on "a specific template"
In the "Select a Reply Template" dialog, next to "Look In:", select "User Templates in File System". Select the name of the template you created earlier, i.e. "Out of Office Reply" and click "Open". Click "Next >"
If you'd like to add any exceptions, you may do so here. A common exception is to not reply to messages from your own domain
Enter a name for the rule and click on "Finish"
Click on "OK" to close the Rules Wizard
If you need to reenable Microsoft Word as your email editor, you can do so by following the same instructions as above, but put a check next to "Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages"
