The Bottom Line
FreeBusy is a handy tool that responds to email in Outlook whenever you're not ready to answer at once (because of a vacation or a meeting, for example). Its filtering intelligence is a bit weak, though.
Pros
- FreeBusy is a straight-forward, easy to use plug-in for Outlook
- Taking the status from Outlook calendar or MSN Messenger, FreeBusy fits into the work-flow
- FreeBusy lets you define custom categories and avoids notifying the same sender twice
Cons
- FreeBusy responses can't be customized using variables
- The filters you can set up in FreeBusy are a bit weak
- FreeBusy cannot pick up your status from third-party applications
Description
- FreeBusy is an autoresponder add-on for Outlook.
- FreeBusy automatically responds to incoming emails with a template based on your current status.
- The status can be derived from your Outlook calender or set manually.
- FreeBusy lets you define custom status in addition to the preset ones.
- All templates in FreeBusy can be customized freely.
- FreeBusy can be configured to only answer certain mail, or exclude emails containing certain words.
- While your status is unchanged, FreeBusy notifies any sender once, even if they send multiple mails.
- FreeBusy supports Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/3/XP and Outlook 2000/2/3.
Guide Review - FreeBusy 1.14.13 - Outlook Add-On
Emailing somebody can be frustrating — if they do not reply promptly. Then you have to wonder whether they're on vacation or don't want to reply, whether you should re-send your message or wait.
FreeBusy is a simple but effective Outlook add-on that avoids this kind of confusion by replying to emails automatically. Tell it you're in a meeting and it will let the senders know.
If somebody mails you repeatedly (via a mailing list, for example), FreeBusy does not fill their mailbox with the same "out of office" message again and again, unless the status has changed. FreeBusy can even derive your current status from the calendar or MSN Messenger, and it's easy to set up custom status along with customized message templates for the reply.
While FreeBusy does include some filtering, these capabilities aren't flexible enough, though. FreeBusy also provides no way to customize the reply per mail.
