How to auto forward emails to a specific person when out of office in Outlook?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified 2025-01-09

When you’re out of the office, it’s essential to ensure that important emails are forwarded to a colleague or team member who can handle them in your absence. Outlook provides built-in features to automate this process, and Kutools for Outlook (KTO) offers even more advanced options. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through two methods to auto-forward emails to a specific person when you’re out of the office.

Auto forward emails to a specific person when out of office by creating rules

Auto forward emails to a specific person when out of office by using Kutools for Outlook

Auto forward emails to a specific person when out of office by creating rules

You can create rules to auto forward all emails or specific emails to a desired person you want, please do with following steps:

1. Click Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts, in the popped out Rules and Alerts dialog box, click New Rule under the Email Rules tab, see screenshot:

2. In the first Rules Wizard dialog, click Apply rule on messages I receive option from the Start from a blank rule section, see screenshot:

3. Click Next button to go to the second dialog, in this step wizard, you can specify the conditions that you want to auto forward certain emails, if you need to forward all receiving emails, skip this step, and click the Next button directly, then a prompt message box is popped out, click Yes button, see screenshot:

4. Now, in the third wizard dialog, check forward it to people or public group option in the Step 1: Select action(s) list box, and then click people or public group hyperlink text to go to the Rule Address dialog, and select the person you want to forward the messages to. See screenshot:

5. Then click OK > Next to go to the fourth wizard dialog box, select any exceptions you would like to apply to this rule, you can also skip this step, go on clicking Next button, see screenshot:

6. In the last Rule Wizard dialog box, type a name for this rule in step 1, and check Turn on this rule option in step 2, see screenshot:

7. Click Finish button, and then click OK button in the Rules and Alerts dialog box, now, when receiving new email, it will be auto forward to the desired person you specified.

Auto forward emails to a specific person when out of office by using Kutools for Outlook

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Step 1. Download and install Kutools for Outlook, enable Outlook and click Kutools Plus > Forward > Rule Manager.

Step 3. In the step 1 of the rule wizard,

Tick Sender is in People or Public Group: Check the box for this condition to filter emails from specific senders.
Click People or Public Group: Select the underlined link to open the address book.
Select the Specific Sender(s): Choose the sender(s) you want to apply the rule to from the list.
Click OK: Confirm your selection and close the address book.

Step 4. Click Next button to go to the step 2 of the rule wizard, and select the exceptions as you need. If you have no one, directly click Next to go to the step 3 of the wizard.

Step 5. In the last step of the rule wizard,

Give the Rule a Name: Enter a descriptive name for the rule (e.g., "Out of Office Forwarding") to easily identify it later.
Click the Select Recipient Button: Use this button to open the address book and choose the recipient(s) for the forwarded emails.
Click OK: Confirm your settings and complete the rule setup.