Filtering new mail using rules

MAIL

Filtering new mail using rules
You can use mail rules to act automatically on new messages you receive that meet certain conditions. For example, you could create a rule that checks for messages from a certain sender or that contain a certain subject and automatically move the messages to a certain folder, send copies of the messages to someone, or delete unwanted messages before you ever see them in your Inbox.

The mail rules you create are stored in the Rules folder in your mail application. You can go there to add new rules as well as work on the ones you've created. For example, you can edit rules, change their order so that one rule has priority over another, turn them off when you don't want to use them, or delete them entirely.

To create a rule

1. In the navigation pane of your mail, click Tools > Rules.

2. Click New Rule.

3. Under Specify Conditions, select a message part to check (such as sender or subject), select a state (such as contains or is), and type the criteria to check for (such as the name of a certain person or a certain word). Do not use quotation marks for the criteria you enter.

For example, you could select

sender

and

contains

, and then type Alice to filter all messages sent to you by Alice French, Alice Stearns, and anyone else named Alice. Or you could select

size (in bytes)

and

is greater than

, and then type 2000 to filter all messages sent to you that are greater than 2000 bytes.

Note:

The

contains

condition works on partial words and is not case sensitive. For example, you could select

sender

and

contains

, and then type Al or al to filter all messages sent to you by anyone named Al, Alice, Alex, or Alicia.

Tip: The all documents condition lets you perform an action on all messages that arrive in your mail while the rule is enabled. For example, you might select all documents and specify sending a copy to an alternate e-mail address while you are out of the office.

4. Click Add.

5. Do any of the following:

Condition and exception tasks

Task	Description
Add more conditions	Click Condition, select AND or OR, and then repeat steps 3 and 4 for each new condition.
Add an exception	Click Exception, and then repeat steps 3 and 4.
Add more exceptions	Click Exception, select AND or OR, and then repeat steps 3 and 4 for each new exception.
Remove a condition or exception	Click the condition or exception in the When mail messages arrive that meet these conditions field, and then click Remove.
Remove all conditions and exceptions	Click Remove All.

6. Under Specify Actions, select an action and, if necessary, specify action details (such as a target folder).

Actions

Action	Description
move to folder	Select a folder.
copy to folder	Select a folder.
send copy to	Select whether you want the forwarded copies to contain the full message, or the message headers only. The headers are the subject, the addresses, and the date and time at the beginning of the message; they don't include the rich-text content of the message. Then enter the address of one or more recipients, separated by commas or semicolons, or click Address to select addresses from a directory. Note: If you find that a rule using the send copy to action is not working, ask your system administrator whether this feature has been disabled for your organization.
set expire date	Type a number, and then select days, weeks, months, or years.
change importance to	Select an importance level.
stop processing	No further action is required. Processing of all rules following this rule stops.
delete (don't accept message)	No further action is required. The message is not delivered to your Inbox.

7. Click Add Action.

8. Do any of the following:

Action tasks

Task	Description
Add more actions	Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each new action.
Remove an action	Click the action in the Perform the following actions box, and then click Remove.
Remove all actions	Click Remove All.

9. Click OK. The rule is enabled (On) by default.

To manage rules

Examples: Mail rules

The following rule automatically changes the importance of all messages from Tom Jenkins to high (which means they display an exclamation point in the Inbox to catch your attention).

Change importance mail rule

The following rule automatically moves all messages that have the word "status" in the subject from the Inbox to the Status Reports folder unless the subject also has the word "sales" or "project" in the subject (which are exceptions)

Move to folder mail rule

Rule condition items correspond to fields in the document properties of a mail message. Many of the items, such as subject, have the same name as the corresponding field. The following table lists items whose names are different from the fields to which they correspond.

Condition items and corresponding fields

Item	Field
Sender	From and/or Principal
Internet domain	SMTPOriginator (domain name portion only)
Subject	Subject or WebSubject
To	SendTo
BCC	BlindCopyTo
CC	CopyTo
Priority	DeliveryPriority

Glossary

Help on Help

All Help Contents

Glossary

Help on Help

All Help Contents