I am having a problem with my MS Outlook 2003 client when applying "Rules and Alerts" from the tools menu. If I want the use the option "Have server reply using a specific message" it displays a blank e-mail for me to fill in, which I do and when I save and exit the message, I return to the previous screen. When I click next I get the message "A value in the "Rule description" box has not been set......" etc. If I then return to the "specific message" I find that any information I have previously entered has not been saved and I can not proceed. My environment is Outlook 2003 as a client and the server is Exchange 2003. Has anybody out there come across a similar problem, if so do you know the cause/solution ?

I posted a similar issue today (no reply to my post yet). In my environment the users set an OOF, and later the text disappears. The OOF message is sent, but with no text. This isn't happening with all users, just some. There are other posts, that discuss Outlook/Exchange 2003 users, with BB servers in the mix, having issuse with different OOF messages being saved when created in MAPI and OWA. I am not ready to call this the same issue yet, but the envionments are the same as mine.

Is this OOF and Rule messages sent to external people? Exchange can block these kinds of messages going external. look in the message tracking log files and see if Exchange is trying to send something. there is also diagnostic logging on the MSExchangeIS/mailbox that you can turn on to get more info