[Brainbuster] Out of Office messages conflict with other users' forwarded messages

[Mac]

Hi,

In an exchange/outlook 2003 environment we have two users. User A and
User B. The Mail from User B is forwarded to User A and a copy is sent
to User B (this is set under Exchange General --> Delivery Options -->
Forward to under the properties of User B in the Active Directory)
This all works fine. When a message is sent to User B, User A gets a
copy.

Now comes the challenge we are facing:

User A decided to go on vacation and activated the Out Of Office
Message. When a message is sent to User A, an auto-reply is sent
stating that User A is on vacation. This is correct but...

when a message is sent to User B, there is also an auto-reply sent
that informs people that User A is on vacation. Now people think that
User B is on vacation, which isn't the case. The auto-reply is sent
because there is a forward active from User B to User A.

How can we fix the situation in such a matter that when people sent a
message to user B, no auto-reply is sent from User A (without having
to disable the forward option???)

It was all so easy with Linux, but with Outlook nowadays... aaaargh!

 

[Dave Patterson]

Yeah, these are always fun........

Theoretically speaking, you can structure Outlook/Exchange in such a way
that NO ONE can send you e-mail uless you allow them to. It's due to the
backbone of that capability that this is possible, but it can be confusing to
set it up. It's done through the Rules Wizard, and not the Out-of-Office
message.

The following answer is based on Outlook 2000, but I don't see that any
other version of Outlook would be that much different.

First of all, kill the Out-of-Office message from User A. You won't need
it. Save the text, obviously, because you will need it to establish the rule.

Secondly, start a new mail message with the text of the original
Out-of-Office message, and save it as an *.oft file.

Third, on User A's Outlook profile, create a rule using the Rules Wizard
with the following criteria:

1.) "Apply this rule after the message arrives" (This will affect ALL
incoming mail.)
2.) "Reply with a specific template" (Select the *.oft file you just
created.)
3.) "Except if from 'people or distribution list'" (This would be User B's
name.)

This is useful for Exchange and POP3/IMAP environments, and works quite well.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Dave Patterson
Senior Technician
Doctor Virus
www.doctorvirus.com




This satisfies the
4.) ''

 

[Mac]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 08:31:10 -0800, "Dave Patterson" <Dave

Yeah, these are always fun........

I will try your suggestion tomorrow, thanks for now.

Mac

 

[Mac]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 08:31:10 -0800, "Dave Patterson" <Dave
(e-mail address removed)> wrote:

Unfortunately the solution you mentioned below states that the rule
only applies to the local Outlook client and the client has to be
active for the rule to work. Since the person is out of the office his
or her client is not active, so this is not a usable solution. Any
other ideas?