Out of Office Set-up for Gmail and Outlook
It’s that time of year again (woohoo!), when the almighty out-of-office tool has the cobwebs dusted from it and you actually get to set it up knowing the fun that lies ahead. Whether you’re taking holidays for a couple of days or for a couple of weeks, the feeling of getting this one last work task done is like lifting a weight off your shoulders. It’s the time when you can finally breathe a deep sigh of relief after all the hard work you’ve done throughout the year!
We’re here to help you get your OOO (out-of-office) sorted, so you can let your colleagues and/or contacts know you’ll be unavailable for a while. You can set up your OOO for either just your customers, or for your work colleagues too, so that it feels like the whole world knows you’re on that much-needed break away from the daily grind. And here’s how you complete this most important task for both Gmail and Outlook…
Setting up an Out-of-Office Reply in Gmail:
Log in to your Gmail account.
In the top right corner, click on the gear icon upper right corner.
Select ‘See all settings’.
Make sure you’re on the ‘General’ tab, or navigate to it if you’re not.
Scroll down until you find the ‘Out of office auto-reply’ section (it should be right at the end of the page).
Select ‘Out of Office AutoReply on’.
Enter the date range that you'll be away in the ‘First day’ and ‘Last day’ fields.
Enter something in the ‘Subject’ e.g. ‘Out of Office’, ‘OOO’, or ‘Seizing some R&R - back on the grind soon!’
In the ‘Message’ field, write what you want to be sent as an automatic reply to incoming emails with things like someone else’s contact details if there’s an urgent task needing to be taken care of, and the date you’ll be back on board. You can also customise the body of the email.
Select ‘Only send a response to people in my Contacts’ - if that’s all you want to do.
Click ‘Save Changes’.
Setting up an Out-of-Office Reply in Outlook:
Log in to your Outlook account.
Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner.
Select ‘Automatic replies’.
Toggle to switch ‘Automatic replies’ on.
Tick ‘Send replies only during a time period’.
Choose the start and end date, and time, for your automatic replies.
Tick any of the meeting/calendar selections that you’re keen on.
In the ‘Send automatic replies inside your organisation’ field, type what you want to send as an automatic reply. This could be something like someone else’s contact details if there’s an urgent task needing to be taken care of, and the date you’ll be back on board. You can also customise the body of the email.
If you want to send replies outside your company, tick the ‘Send replies outside your organisation’ field.
If you only want to send replies to Contacts, select ‘Send replies only to contacts’.
Type what you want to send as an automatic reply to incoming emails. You could copy and paste the same message as you wrote for your colleagues inside your organisation, changing it to suit.
Click ‘Save’ to activate your out-of-office replies.
The exact steps might vary slightly based on the specific version or interface of Gmail and Outlook you're using, but we’re pretty sure you’re savvy enough to figure out any minor differences and make it work.
Also, changes to programs and systems are being made constantly to ensure the latest and greatest features are at your fingertips, so while both programs had end date selections when we wrote this article, it might just be a good idea to make a note to check that the settings have turned off - think of this as your first return-to-work task! It’s better to take those few seconds to make sure the auto-replies are no longer active when you're back on board, rather than have all your colleagues and/or customers thinking you’re still away.
We hope you found these steps easy to follow, and that you have a happy holiday!