Before you finish up for your holiday break, it is important you notify people who email you to let them know you’re away and when you will be back. For those using Google Apps or Gmail, this is very easy to do. Just follow these simple steps. Log into your actual Gmail account (not the linked mailbox such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail). 1. Go to www.gmail.com. 2. Sign in with your email address and password (if you don’t know your password see bottom FAQ). 3. Click the Settings icon (looks like a gear) . 4. Select Settings. 5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and under Vacation responder, select on. 6. Enter your dates to when it will start and end. 7. Enter the subject. E.g Out Of Office. 8. Type in your message, if you want to be fancy you can change the fonts, colours and even add a christmas picture. 9. Tick if you wish to only reply to your contacts or people in your company. 10. Save Changes and you’re done. If setup correctly you wont need to turn this off when you return to work as you have specified the end date for its automatic removal. In the case that you extend your holiday, don’t forget to adjust the end date. FAQ’s Q: Do I need to set this up on my computer, laptop and mobile phone? A: No. As it is setup on the server it applies on all your devices. However you do need to do this for every individual email account. Q: I don’t know my Gmail password, I use Microsoft Outlook to email, which never requires a password. A: Best to ask the person who setup your email address in Outlook. Otherwise you could run a program that extracts the saved password in your email program. For windows we recommend mailpv by nirsoft. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mailpv.html A: For those using Apple, you can recover the password from an inbuilt app called keychain. Applications>Utilities, find the referred to keychain, double click on it, checkmark the Show Password. For more tips and tricks on using Gmail, click this link