Better Out-of-Office Functionality
A little issue we ran across today in our office is the functionality available when setting up your “Out-of-Office Assistant” with Microsoft Outlook 2007. If I remember correctly it also functioned like this with previous versions of Outlook as well.
Why is it when I’m setting up the Out-of-Office Assistant, I can’t immediately specify what day and time it should start on and end?
We’re guessing it’s possible if you complete the configuration navigation trifecta as shown above.
- Open the assistant, specify your away message and then “Add Rule…”
- From the “Edit Rule” screen, you still need to click on the “Advanced…” button
- Now you see the options to specify a received from and to date.
Would it make vastly more since to specify on the initial screen that this should turn on at 5:00pm on 12/23 and off at 8:00am on 01/02/2007? Sure sounds like it would make more since like that to me.
That way I can set it up weeks in advance when I’m thinking about it, instead of when I’m sitting on the plane or in my parents living room with only access to their 486 on a dial-up connection.
I could also not have to worry about remembering to turn it off when I get back into the office upon my return.
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POSTED IN: Business Users, Outlook, Small Business, Software, Software Wishlist, Training, User Experience
2 opinions for Better Out-of-Office Functionality
Stuart Newman
Dec 20, 2007 at 10:58 am
I don’t think this will work. The from-to date is negative filter that prevents your mail from being sent on the specified dates.
Jason
Dec 20, 2007 at 11:04 am
All the more reason this really needs to be adjusted and improved. Thanks for sharing Stuart!
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