For many people, managing emails every single day is difficult. Surely, you need some time away from the virtual world so you won’t get left out in the real world. Because you cannot respond to all incoming emails when you are on vacation, you can just use the Vacation Responder feature on your Gmail account to let them know that you are currently away from your desk.
Enabling the vacation responder
Click the Settings link on the upper right side of the page. The link opens the Settings menu in the page. On the General tab, scroll the page down a bit to reveal the Vacation Responder option near the bottom of the page. To activate the Vacation Responder, click the “Vacation Responder On” option. Enter a subject line in the subject field and type your autorespond message in the message box. If you want to send email responses only to the people included in your contact list, then check the “Only send a response to people in my Contacts” box. Once you are happy with your autorespond message and settings, click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.
Specifying vacation dates
To further enhance the functionality of the Vacation Responder, Gmail launched the Vacation Time! feature. The said Gmail Labs feature, which was developed by a Gmail engineer named Darick, allows you to specify a starting and an ending date for the Vacation Responder. After the end date you specified in Vacation Time!, the Vacation Responder will stop responding to your incoming emails.
Disabling the vacation responder
If you don’t want to take advantage of the Vacation Time! feature, you can always disable the Vacation Responder manually. It is actually quite easy. Just open the Settings menu in your Gmail account and choose the “Vacation Responder Off” option near the bottom of the page. Click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page and you’re all set.