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Setting Greetings

Setting greetings

There are two kinds of greetings you can set for your voice mail:

  • The standard greeting used to answer your phone when you are not at your desk. For information on recording your standard greeting, see Recording a personal greeting on the Quick Start page.
  • An extended absence greeting used to answer your phone when you will be away from the office for more than a day. This greeting will be played to callers instead of your standard greeting. When you return to the office, you can turn off the extended absence greeting, and your callers will again be greeted with your standard personal greeting. For instructions, see

You can turn on and record greetings from any phone, or from the Outlook Web Application (OWA, also known as webmail).

To turn on and record an extended absence greeting:

From your phone:

  1. Say “Personal Options”, or press * then 0, then 6.
  2. Press 1 to turn on your away greeting. Your current greeting will be played back for you.
    • To keep the current greeting, press 1.
    • To record a new greeting, press 2.
      Say your new greeting and then press #. The greeting is played back automatically.
      To confirm your greeting, press 1. To re-record your greeting, press 2.
  3. If you also want to send an away response to incoming emails, press 1. Outlook uses the message previously set in Outlook, and the previously set options for who receives the away message (only inside Princeton or to all email senders).

From Outlook:

  1. Open the Exchange Outlook Web Application (OWA, also known as webmail) in your browser. Note: If Use the light version of Outlook Web App is checked, uncheck it. You must use the full version to see Phone options.
  2. Click the Options drop-down arrow at the top right, just under your name, and select See all options.
  3. In the menu at the left, select Phone.
  4. Scroll down to the Greetings section, and select Greeting that lets callers know I’ll be away for an extended period of time.
  5. If the current extended absence greeting is not accurate, you can record a new greeting by clicking the Call me to play or record the selected greeting… link. In the Play on Phone dialog box, you can use the displayed number, or enter a different number before clicking the Dial link. (Be patient. It may take a while for the call to come through.)
    1. When your phone rings, pick it up; the system will play your current greeting.
    2. To record a new greeting, press 2.
    3. Record your greeting and press #.
    4. To confirm the greeting, press 1; to re-record it, press 2.
  6. To turn on away messages for email, click Organize E-Mail in the Options menu, and click the Automatic Replies button (above the Inbox Rules).
    1. Select Send automatic replies.
    2. If you know the dates when you will be away, check the Send replies only during this time period option, and select the date and time when you want automatic replies to begin and end.
    3. Enter the message you want to send automatically.
    4. Check the Send automatic reply messages to senders outside my organization option and select Send replies to all external senders. This ensures that all members of the Princeton community will get the automatic reply, as well as any outside senders.
    5. Enter the message you want to send to external senders. You can copy and paste the message you used for internal senders, or enter a different message.
    6. Click Save.

To turn off your extended absence greeting:

From your phone:

  1. Say “Personal Options”, or press * then 0, then 6.
  2. Press 1 to turn off your away greeting.
    Note: The greeting is not deleted. It will be saved for the next time you turn on your away greeting.
  3. If your away greeting is turned on for e-mail, you will be prompted to turn it off. Press 1 to turn off your e-mail away greeting.

From Outlook:

  1. Open the Exchange Outlook Web Application (OWA) in your browser. Note: If Use the light version of Outlook Web App is checked, uncheck it. You must use the full version to see Phone options.
  2. If your email extended absence greeting is on, the Automatic Replies dialog box is displayed. Click Yes to turn off your email extended absence greeting.
  3. To turn off your voice mail extended absence greeting, you will need to use the Options menu to turn it off from Outlook:
    1. Click on the Options menu on the top right, and select See All Options…
    2. Select Phone from the menu on the left.
    3. Scroll down to the Greetings section, and select Default voice mail greeting.
    4. Click Save.