Outlook Message Rules...or not

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, I know there has to be someone here more knowledgeable about Outlook Message rules than me (sound of glove slapping face).

This worked fine in Outlook Express, but good ol' Outlook is giving me fits.

I want to create a template, so when I get an e-mail with a specific word in the subject, Outlook will forward it to another contact of mine, move the message to a folder, and reply with the template message.

Creating an Outlook Email Template

The first part is to create an email template for the rule. The template contains the information you wish to convey.

1. Open Outlook
2. From the File menu, select New and then Mail Message.
3. Type a Subject: for the email. As example, “New contact info for ...”
4. Add the content for your email.
5. Click the Office button in the top left and select Save As.
6. In the Save As dialog, change the Save as type: field to “Outlook Template (*.oft). By default, the file will be saved in the Template folder.
7. Provide a descriptive File name for the template.
8. Click Save.
9. Press Alt+F4 to close the template.
10. Click No when asked if you wish to save draft.

Ok, now I have my template, next to create the rule:

1. From the Tools menu, select Rules and Alerts.
2. In the Rules and Alerts dialog, click New Rule…
3. In the Rules Wizard, click “Check messages when they arrive”. This is under Start from a blank rule.
4. Click Next.
5. In Step 1, check “with specific words subject or body”.
6. In the lower pane, click the hyperlink for “specific words”.
7. Enter the keywords
8. Click Add.
9. Click OK. Next
10. Check Move it to a specified folder
11. check forward it to specified person
12. For action, select “reply using a specific template”.
13. Click the hyperlink “a specific template” in lower pane.
14. In the Select a Reply Template, change the Look In: value to “User Templates in File System”.
15. Select the template you made.
16. Click Open.
17. Click Next.
18 Give your rule a name.
19. Click Finish.

When I test the rule by sending a note to my address from gmail, it gets moved to the proper folder and it forwards the message, but I get a popup that says "Error in Rules" that says "Cannot reply to message"

And the template is not sent in reply? WTH?? Anyone?