An away message is not about politeness — it is about not coming home to forty emails from people who assumed you were ignoring them. Set the dates and Outlook handles the switching on and off entirely by itself.
Write the message first
Open a blank document or just plan three short sentences: that you are away, the date you return, and who to contact urgently.
Writing it before you are in the settings box means you are not composing under pressure with a dialog open.
Give the return date as a real date, not 'next week'.
'Back Monday 12 May' answers the question. 'Away for a while' generates a follow-up email.
Turn it on with dates
Click File, then Automatic Replies (Out of Office).
This is the built-in feature, and it lives in File rather than on the ribbon.
Choose Send automatic replies, then tick 'Only send during this time range' and set the start and end.
The date range is the important bit: it turns itself off, so you never leave an away message running in June.
Type your message in the Inside My Organisation tab.
This is what colleagues see, so it can be slightly more direct and mention a stand-in.
Click the Outside My Organisation tab, tick to enable it, and paste a shorter version.
Outsiders do not need your colleague's name or internal detail — keep it brief.
Click OK.
A thin banner appears at the top of Outlook while it is active, which is your confirmation.
If your account has no Automatic Replies
Personal accounts sometimes lack that option. Instead, click File then Manage Rules & Alerts then New Rule.
A rule can do the same job for accounts without the server-side feature.
Choose 'Apply rule on messages I receive', click Next twice, then tick 'reply using a specific template'.
The template is your away message, saved beforehand as an Outlook Template (.oft) file.
Remember to switch this rule off yourself when you get back.
Unlike Automatic Replies, a rule has no end date and will keep going indefinitely.
Check it works
Email yourself from another address, or ask someone to send you a quick test.
Thirty seconds of testing beats finding out from an annoyed colleague next week.
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you have finished.
- My message says the exact date I am back.
- It names someone to contact if it is urgent.
- The start and end dates are set, so it stops on its own.
- I tested it by sending myself an email.