Automatic Response Controller

 

I’ve been getting more comments and requests on my Suggestions page. Here’s one from a poster who goes by the name mannagod7.

In microsoft’s support section for auto-replies @ http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/send-out-of-office-notices-with-pop3-imap-and-hotmail-accounts-HA010354932.aspx?CTT=1, they say, “The reply using a specific template rule in the Rules Wizard sends your automated reply only one time to each sender during a single session. A session is every time that you start Outlook until you exit the application. This rule prevents Outlook from sending repetitive replies to a single sender from whom you receive multiple messages. During a session, Outlook keeps track of the list of users to whom it has responded. If you exit and then restart Outlook, it is considered a new session and the list of the senders who have received automated replies is reset.”

Is there a way to stop the reset function from running on exit of Outlook, so that even when I do restart Outlook, someone who has already received my auto-reply will not receive another one.

In short, what mannagod7 would like is a solution that keeps track of who it’s responded to even between Outlook sessions. I don’t think there’s any setting that will prevent Outlook from resetting the list of who it’s replied to. As I explained to mannagod7, my best guess is that Outlook stores the list in memory which, of course, is wiped when Outlook closes. The only solution I can think of is to use code to emulate the “reply using a specific template” rule. Keep in mind that this solution only applies when Outlook is not being used with Exchange.

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