You can set up an out of office message in Microsoft outlook, but you need to be aware of the following:

Your computer has to be turned and Outlook needs to be open in order for the out of office function to work.

Your e-mail host or internet service provider may have an out of office feature that works even if your computer is turned off.  In this scenario, you would log on to your webmail account via your web browser, then find the settings for out of office.

If you still want to use Outlook for your out of office function, follow these steps.  The steps may vary slightly, depending on your version of Outlook.

Compose a new e-mail message with the out of office information, such as:

I will be out of the office from Thursday August 4th - Friday August 12th.  I will respond to your e-mail upon my return on Monday August 15th. 

If you have an urgent issue, please contact PC Mobile Help at 206-686-8682.

From the file menu (the dot at the top left), choose Save As... and save the template under a different name, and make sure it is of type "outlook template".

In outlook:

Tools menu->Message Rules

Delete any old out of office rules.

Start a new rule:

Create from a blank rule

Check messages when they arrive through the specified account (then choose the account)

Reply with the specified template (then choose the new template, which is listed under user-defined templates)