(For ease of reading I'm replying at the top)

Send/Receive was set at default. I went to ToolsOptionsMail
SetupSend/Receive and set all of my accounts to "Download complete item
including attachments".
The first two tests sent the autoresponse, but out of 8 with the correct
wording, 4 sent the response.
I did notice that sometimes when a new message comes in, the envelope icon
(header status) is there for a while.

"Brian Tillman" wrote:

ppi wrote:

Outlook 2003, IMAP/SMTP without Exchange.
I have set up a rule "with specific words in the subject" (and tried
"on this machine only" or not and "stop processing more rules" or
not), and "reply using c:\Documents and Settings\user\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates\autoresponsetest.oft".

Out of 11 tests, only 2 sent the reply. The specific words were "send
test", and I tested it with a different email account sending with
subject "send test" and "send test" with a number. Supposedly that
shouldn't matter. The 2 that worked were the plain "send test", but
some of the other "send test" didn't work.
I've also inactivated the other rules I had, and that made no
difference.

Why doesn't this work consistently?

Do you have your Send/Receive group configured to download the entire IMAP
message and not just the header?
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]