Emulate Out of Office Outlook 2007 with SP2

[Dede]

I had the Out of Office set up as in instructions found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311107
To emaulate the out of office assistant.
However since installing SP2 for Office 2007, I get an error message, and
when I go back to check the Rules and Alerts, the out of office rule is
unchecked.
I have performed a system restore on my Windows XP 64bit instalation to the
pre-SP2 Office upgrade, and now the out of office works.
Any ideas on how to overcome this with SP2 installed?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I get an error message
Which is...?

Which mail account type are you using?

 

[Dede]

I should have taken a picture of the error message.
Please give me time to install SP2 for Office and I will show you.
However in the mean time, it is an error window with a big red X and the
error word, and says that the out of office rule did not work
The account is a POP3, and I followed these instructions:
http://am-novice.com/US/Computer/Logiciel/outlook/out_of_office_outlook.html

 

[Roady [MVP]]

The instructions look sound to me. What was eventually you created rule in
full?

 

[Dede]

Roady, thanks for your patience.
I installed SP2 for the Office suite again, and the problem reappeared.
I just tried to paste a picture of the error message, but it does not seem
possible here. (If there is a way to send the jpegs let me know).
The exact error I get is:
a "Rules in Error" window, and inside there is a message which under the
Rule header displays the name of my rule which I named "Out of Office" and
further to the right under the Error header, it says: "Cannot reply to
message".
When I go to "Rules and Alerts...", then I find that my Out of Office rule
has been unchecked. I check it, then press Apply and OK, and but when an
email comes in, the same thing happens again at the moment the message comes
in (The error message and the rule is unchecked). And no Out of Office
message gets sent.
The message itself is very simply in plain text and only says Out of Office.
Maybe this is part of some anti spam filter that comes with SP2?
Until I can sort this out, I will go back to before SP2.
Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Dede]

One more piece of info.
I read somwhere that the Rules and Alerts has a max size.
So for testing purposes, I deleted all rules except the Out of Office rule,
and the Clear categories on mail (recommended), and the Out of Office rule
still unchecks and I get the same error.
Thxanks.

 

[roger]

Dede,

I have exactly the same situation. It only occurred after I installed SP2.
I've replaced/renamed everything. I get the same error box and it unchecks
the rule. I suspect it has something to do with the improved security in SP2.

Do you by any chance have Email Templates 5.0 installed? That's the only
thing non-standard about my Outlook installation.

 

[Dede]

Roger:
No I do not have Email templates 5 installed.
I have returned to a pre SP2 state until the situation is repaired.

 

[roger]

Thanks

Roger:
No I do not have Email templates 5 installed.
I have returned to a pre SP2 state until the situation is repaired.

 

[Alisha]

I have had this happen on both computers that I have installed office 2007
sp2 to. I have tried to manually run the rule, which works, but the
automatic reply just causes the "Rules in Error" message to come up, and the
rule gets deactivated. Has anyone found a solution yet? - Thanks

 

[Gordon]

I have had this happen on both computers that I have installed office 2007
sp2 to. I have tried to manually run the rule, which works, but the
automatic reply just causes the "Rules in Error" message to come up, and
the
rule gets deactivated. Has anyone found a solution yet? - Thanks

See if your email provider has Webmail and an "On Vacation" function - many
do now a days and that's by far the easiest way of doing this.

 

[Alisha]

I completely agree. Unfortunately, our current setup doesn't allow that.
That's why we switched to using Outlook's Rules and Alerts. But thank you,
that is great advice.

 

[Dede]

I agree as well, however, it would be nice to know for sure if this function
has in fact been disabled with SP2, and if so is Microsoft even aware of
this, and is there a workaround for this...
It would be interesting to know if the out of office function has also been
disaabled in previous versions of Office.

 

[Gordon]

I agree as well, however, it would be nice to know for sure if this
function
has in fact been disabled with SP2,

Out of Office is an Exchange function, not an Outlook function. If you don't
have Exchange Server then you don't have an Out of Office function. Period.
Nothing to do with Office SPs at all.

 

[Dede]

You are correct, however there is a way to use the Automatic reply function
of outlook without an exchange server. This is explained on the Microsoft
Outlook Website here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102487481033.aspx
This is done by turning on a rule that uses a template that you create. In
other words, this rule that you create simulates the out of office assistant.
Like I tried to explain before, after installing SP2, when this rule is
turned on, it produces an error, and the rule is automatically unchecked.
So it is something in the Rules that has perhaps been changed?

 

[Gordon]

You are correct, however there is a way to use the Automatic reply
function
of outlook without an exchange server. This is explained on the Microsoft
Outlook Website here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102487481033.aspx

Quite correct. However there are many flaws in using that method, not least
that your computer has to be on with Outlook running 24/7......another big
flaw is that Outlook may get into a big loop if the rule applies to spam,
and that may fill your mailbox on your ISPs mail server up very rapidly,
which would then mean that genuine messages would be bounced....

 

[Dede]

Thanks Gordon.
I was aware of the spam problem, and have used the option of replying only
to emails from a distribution list that I created, and thus eliminating the
spam problem. My ISP does not offer on Vacation settings yet, and like I said
above, I will delay installing SP2 for now.

 

[Alisha]

The only workaround I have found so far, is that I can still run the rule
manually (Tools--Rules and Alerts--Run Rules Now) to messaged in the inbox,
but it means someone has to babysit your emails while you're away.

I've sent feedback to Mircosoft. As of last week, I'd not found anything on
it in their knowledgebase.

 

[Alisha]

The only workaround I've found is to have someone manually run the rule in
your inbox every once in a while (tools--rules and alerts-run rules now).

I haven't found anything in the knowledgebase yet.I did offer feedback to
Microsoft to help make them aware.

 

[oarsinc]

The only workaround I've found is to have someone manually run the rule in
your inbox every once in a while (tools--rules and alerts-run rules now). 

I haven't found anything in the knowledgebase yet.I did offer feedback to
Microsoft to help make them aware.

Hello, we are having the exact same problem here. This is definitely a
bug that Microsoft needs to resolve. Considering how many people are
using Office 2007, and how many are updating their systems to SP2, you
would think they would have found and addressed this issue by now!

Please let us know if you hear back from Microsoft.
Thanks.