Wouldn't it be nice to automatically send different reply messages when you're on vacation? For example, you could send one reply to business associates and another to friends. Well you can, if you use the Rules Wizard and Outlook templates. Here's how to create a custom reply for a group of people.

Note  Replies will only be sent when Outlook is running. However, if you're using Microsoft Exchange Server, you can create a variation of this rule and the server will automatically send replies whether you have Outlook running or not.

First, create an automatic reply template

To save a message as a template, you must temporarily turn off Microsoft Word as your default e-mail editor.

1. Open a new Outlook message.
2. In the message body, type whatever information you'd like to appear in your custom reply.
3. On the File menu, click Save As.
4. In the File name box, enter a name for your reply template.
5. In the Save as type box, click Outlook template, and then click Save.
6. On the File menu, click Close, and then when prompted to save, click No.

Next, create a rule to send an automatic reply

1. On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard.
2. In the Apply changes to this folder list, click the Inbox you want to create the rule for.
3. Click New.
4. Click Start from a blank rule.
5. Click Check messages when they arrive, and then click Next.
6. In the Which condition(s) do you want to check list, select the From people or distribution list check box.
7. In the Rule description list, click the underlined phrase, people or distribution list.
8. In the Type name or select from list box, type the name of each person you want to receive the custom reply, and click From after you type each name.
9. Click OK, and then click Next.
10. In the What do you want to do with the message list, select the Reply using a specific template check box.
11. In the Rule description list, click the underlined phrase, a specific template.
12. In the Look in list, click User Templates in File System.
13. Click the template you created above, click Open, and then click Next.
14. Select the check box next to any exception that you want, and then click Next.
15. In the Please specify a name for this rule box, type a name for the rule.
16. Click Finish, and then click OK.

Note   To have this rule apply to all your accounts and Inboxes, click Create this rule on all accounts.

That's it. Now, when you receive a message from one of the people you specified in step 8 above, they'll automatically receive your custom response.

Important  When you set up a rule to automatically reply to someone, the Rules Wizard will send a reply for each message you receive from that person.