Email Autoresponder Behavior for VUexchange & VUmail
Quick Links:
VUExchange - Outlook Out of Office Asssistant
The VUExchange email servers are currently configured so that automated replies setup using the Outlook Out of Office Assistant are only returned to other users of the VUExchange or VUMC Exchange email services. This is true of the VUMC Exchange email system as well. Therefore, anyone outside of the VUexchange or VUMC Exchange email system will not receive an automated response that is setup using the Outlook Out of Office Assistant. This includes VUmail and other external email systems such as Yahoo! or Hotmail. Please see the chart below for additional information.
SMTP (VUmail) Vacation Autoresponder
The SMTP, or VUmail, Vacation Autoresponder service is available at the SMTP server level to provide an automated response to any senders of emails to any individual at Vanderbilt, regardless of the Vanderbilt individual's email system. Any user at Vanderbilt can configure their SMTP Vacation Autoresponder so that the SMTP server will automatically reply to any email that is addressed to any of the individual's BCA's. Keep in mind that messages that are not routed through the inbound SMTP server messaging process will NOT receive an automated response from the SMTP Vacation Autoresponder service. This specifically applies to Intra-Exchange traffic as it does NOT pass through SMTP, but is routed entirely within/between Exchange environments. Please see the chart below for additional information.
Which should I configure?
Mail System |
Desired Result |
Auto-responder Configurations Required |
| VUmail | Global automated response | SMTP Vacation Autoresponder |
| VUmail | Vanderbilt-only automated response | N/A |
| VUExchange | Global automated response | Option 1: SMTP Vacation Autoresponder & Outlook Out of Office Assistant Option 2: Create Rules in Out of Office Assistant to reply to ALL messages |
| VUExchange | VUExchange or VUMC Exchange ONLY automated response | Outlook Out of Office Assistant |
| VUExchange | Global automated response (EXCEPT VUExchange or VUMC Exchange) | SMTP Vacation Autoresponder |
Activate the Out of Office Assistant
- Select your Mail folder and click on Tools > Out of Office Assistant.
- Select the 'I am currently Out of the Office' option. (Note: the "Out of Office Assistant" can be turned off by selecting the 'I am currently In the Office' option.
- In the the 'AutoReply only once to each sender with the following text:' box, type the message you wish to send to e-mail senders.
- Click the OK button.
Outlook Out of Office Assistant Rules for Handling Messages
Outlook offers only one way to set the Out-of-Office Assistant such that all senders – those both ON and OFF campus will receive the automatic notification. Simply enabling the Out of Office Assistant in Outlook will result in a reply that goes ONLY to ON campus senders.
- From Outlook’s main window, click the Tools menu and select “Out of Office Assistant…”
- Click the “Add Rule…” button toward the lower-left corner of the window
- Click to place a check in the “Reply with” box
- Click the Template button just to the right of the checkbox and a blank e-mail message will appear
- Enter a subject and the message you would like sent on your behalf when you are out of the office
- Once you are satisfied with your message , click the “X” in the upper-right corner of the window to close it (or, click Close from the File menu)
- Click Yes to indicate that you want to save the changes you’ve just made
- Once the message template has been saved and is out of sight, the Add Rule window will reappear
- Setting A Date Range (Optional)
- Click the Advanced button
- Put checks in both the From and the To boxes and then enter the dates you plan to be out of the office in the respective boxes
- Click OK
- Click OK to return to the Out of Office Assistant
(you are not done yet!) - To enable this new rule, you must select the “I am currently Out of the office” radio button
- Click OK once more to enable your new rule and your Out of Office Assistant
This option allows you to turn on your Assistant but only have it send auto-replies out during the time period which you specify during the steps below – rather than all of the time which it is active which is the default. Note that you still must enable the Assistant by clicking the “I am currently Out of the office” radio button in order for the replies to be sent.
To set your Assistant for a specific date range, do the following:
Note the rule you’ve just created appears and has a checkmark in the Status column to indicate that it is active
Note: In much the same way you used to be able to access and reuse the text from the VU AutoResponder web-based service, you can also return to these screens and reuse this text as well. Simply modify the dates on the Advanced page and “OK” your way back out.
