How to Set Up an Out of Office With a Signature – For Windows

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By default, Microsoft’s out-of-office doesn’t include your email signature – this is just the way Microsoft designed it.

But there is a way to include it! In this guide we’ll show you how.

1) Start by creating a new email and typing the out-of-office message you would like to send.

Please note that your signature may already be there depending on your setup, but you can leave it as is.

2) In the draft email go to “File > Save As” and choose ‘Outlook Template’.

NB: You can save this template anywhere, but in this example, we’ll save to our ‘Desktop’ folder.

3) Now we have made the template we need to set up a rule. In your normal Outlook dashboard go to File > Manage Rules and Alerts > New Rule.

4) On this screen, select the following > Apply Rule on Messages | Send and then click ‘Next’.

5) On the next page, leave all of the options blank. You’ll then be asked if you want to apply to all incoming messages – click ‘Yes’.

6) In this next step, you’ll need to select the following option. ‘Reply Using a Specific Template’. In the box titled ‘Step 2’, click the blue link which days ‘a specific template’.

7) Once you click this, you’ll need to navigate to where you saved your template earlier on. We saved ours in our ‘Desktop’ folder, so we’ll navigate there.

8) Then select any exceptions and hit ‘Finish’.

9) Now that you’re all set up, you can turn your ‘Out of Office’ with signature on by loading up Outlook, then clicking File > Manage Rules and Alerts. Then, tick the box beside it to turn it on.

To turn it off, uncheck the box.