WMU > OIT > Help Desk > E-mail

Setting Up An "Away" or "Vacation" Rule in GroupWise

GroupWise users who are away from the office for extended periods often need to notify those who e-mail them that they are absent, when they will be back and if someone else is available to help them in the interim. A vacation rule, i.e. automated response, can be set up in GroupWise to handle this task for you.

When setting up a vacation rule, care must be taken to assure that it does not cause problems for you and the GroupWise mail system. If you auto respond to a message sent by another mail account that is set up to auto respond, an endless loop of e-mails back and forth can be created. Endless e-mail loops can fill up your mailbox and also cause the entire post office to stop functioning. This procedure will set up a vacation rule that only responds to persons with WMU e-mail accounts.

1. From the Tools menu, choose "Rules" to bring up the rules dialog box.
2. Chose “New” to open an Edit Rule dialog box.
3. In the rule name field at the top enter an appropriate name for the rule, i.e. “Vacation Rule”
4. In the “When event is” dialog, be sure the item type pull down is defaulted to
   “New Item”. If not, open the pull down box and select it.
5. In the “And Items are:” section be sure that “Received” is checked.
6. Under the “Items Types” options check only mail to limit the auto response to mail only.
   
   
   
   
7. Next click the “define conditions” button to display the define conditions dialog box.
8. To create our first condition in the dialog box start by opening the “include entries where” pull down box and select “View Name”. If View Name does not appear select “All Fields” and then in the resulting all fields window select the “View Name” condition type.
   
   
   
   
9. In the operand pull down window select the “Does Not Contain” option.
   
   
   
   
10. In the following value field, enter “internet”.
11. In the ending operand, pull down and select “or”, which will then display another window for a secondary condition.
    
    
    
    
12. In the secondary condition window follow the same steps as indicated for the first condition starting at step #7.
13. In the “Include entries where…” condition select “from”.
14. In the operand pull down window confirm that the default “contains” is checked.
    
    
    
    
15. In the following value field enter “@wmich.edu” (without quotes)
    
    
    
    
16. In the ending operand pull down confirm that the default “End “ is displayed. Click OK to finish the conditions section of the rule.
17. Moving down to the actions section click the Add Action button and select reply from the pull down menu.
18. In the reply dialog box make sure that only “Reply to Sender” is checked and click “OK”. This will open a reply box which is similar to an e-mail compose windows. In the reply box enter the message you wish to send out to e-mails received from within WMU. Here is an example of what you might want to say:
    
    
    
    
19. When you have finished composing your message click the “OK” button.
20. Click the Add Action button again and select “Stop Rule Processing”.
    
    
    
    
21. When back at the Edit Rule dialog box click the save button to save your new rule.

How to use your vacation rule:

Before leaving the office for an extended absence remember to activate your vacation rule by:

1. In the tools rule window highlight your vacation rule and select edit.
2. Highlight the Reply action in the lower section and select “Edit Action”
3. Click “OK” at the reply section, edit your message for your current absence.
4. When finished editing your message click “OK” and save the rule.
5. When back to the rules list be sure that you place a check mark to the left of your vacation rule when you are ready to activate the rule before closing the rules window.
6. When you return to the office after your absence don’t forget to uncheck the rule to turn if off.

Need More Help?

If you need assistance, the Help Desk is located down the hall at the end of the UCC lab. They may be reached by telephone at (269) 387-HELP, option 1, or by e-mail to .