Do you use Gmail? Would you like to setup an automated reply email to indicate that you’re going to be on vacation or out of the office? Google provides some simple, step-by-step setup instructions for their Vacation Responder. Since Gmail’s interface changes often, I do not think it makes sense for me to re-write them in this article as they could change without notice.

Here are some related notes.

Your automated reply is sent to people only the first time they contact you. It resets after four days and if that same person emails you after four days then he or she would receive your automated reply a second time.

You can have your automated reply sent to everybody or only to people who you have saved to your Google Contacts list. If your Gmail account is provided by your employer or school you can choose whether your automated reply is sent to everybody or only to people in your organization.

Email messages delivered to your spam folder will not get your automated reply.

Email messages from a mailing list will not get your automated reply.