I would advise that this sort of auto reponse is set up via webmail account which you access via a browser. Why? Because if you create it in Thunderbird then computer must be left switched on and never go to sleep nor hiberate; your User Account must be logged into and Thunderbird must be running. This is not adviseable from a security point of view if you are 'not in the office'. But if you really do want to do it then: * create an email with Subject eg: 'out of office' which says appolgies I 'll get back to as as soon as possible or whatever you want to say and save as a 'Template'. It then gets saved in the 'Templates' folder. In 'Message Filters' * Create a new filter named Out of Office * Apply filter when 'Getting new mail' * Suggest you use 'Filter After junk Calssification' because you do not really want to be reponding to junk mail. * Select 'Match all the following' * Select 'To' 'contains' and type your email address So only responding to emails sent to you. Action: * select 'Reply with Template' and choose the 'Out of Office' template you created. Make sure this message filter is not enabled until required.