Microsoft Outlook Mail Filters

 

I. Outlook 98, 2000, or 2002

To set up a rule in Outlook 98, 2000, or 2002 to automate the handling of mail, follow these steps:

  1. From the Tools menu, select Rules Wizard.
  2. Click the New... button. A dialog box will open.
  3. Under "Which type of rule do you want to create?", select the rule you would like to use.
  4. Under "Rule description (click an underlined value to edit it)", if there are underlined words, click them to edit or add information about the rule.
  5. Click Next.
  6. Under "Which condition(s) do you want to check?", click the checkboxes for the conditions you want to use for the rule.

    Note: Outlook 2000 and 2002 have an extra capability to check for a specific word or phrase in the body of the message. To do this, select the checkbox next to with specific words in the body and enter the text to search for.
  7. Under "Rule description (click an underlined value to edit it)":

 

  1. Click the Next button. The prompt will ask "This rule will be applied to every message you receive. Is this correct?" Click Yes.
  2. Under "What do you want to do with the message?", click the checkbox to determine if the message is moved to a folder, deleted, or forwarded.

II. Outlook 97

To set up a rule in Outlook 97 to automate the handling of mail, follow these steps:

  1. From the Tools menu, select Inbox Assistant.
  2. Click the Add Rule button.
  3. To apply a rule to mail received from a particular address, click the From... button and select a name from the Global Address List. Alternatively, you can enter the address in the "From..." field. This will trigger the rule whenever a mail message arrives from that address.
  4. To apply a rule to a "Sent To" address, click the Sent To... button and select a name from the Global Address List. Alternatively, you can enter an address in the "Sent To..." field.
  5. You may also use the contents from the subject or message body to apply a rule. Type the contents information in the "Subject..." or "Message Body..." field.

If you click the Advanced button, you will see that you can also trigger a rule using other criteria, such as message size and date.

  1. Click the checkbox next to the action you would like performed:

 

  1. If you choose Reply with, click Template... to open a new message form. Enter your reply, add any additional recipients, and insert attachments that you want to include. Then, from the File menu, select Save & Close. This will automatically send a reply to the sender.
  2. When finished, click OK.

III. Organizing your mail in Outlook 98, 2000, or 2002

In addition to using the Rules Wizard in Outlook 98, 2000, and 2002, you can also organize your mail in other ways. While you have a message selected for which you would like to apply a rule, click the Organize button on the toolbar (or, from the Tools menu, select Organize). This will open a new pane from which you can create a new rule, following the steps below:

  1. In the "Ways to Organize Inbox" pane, click the Using Folders button on the left (if it is not already selected).
  2. Click the from drop-down box to toggle between from and sent to.
  3. Click the Create button. This will create a new rule for the selected message.
  4. For more complex rules (like those described above), at the top of the "Ways to Organize Inbox" pane, click Rules Wizard... .

You can also use the "Ways to Organize Inbox" pane to:

IV. Outlook Express (Windows)

Setting up mail filters (or rules as they are called in Outlook) in Outlook Express is very easy. Open Outlook Express. Click on Tools menu and go to Message Rules, and then select Mail...

That will open the window shown below. 

This is where you create the rule that will filter a specific kind of email. In this example we'll filter email as it arrives and automatically delete the mail that matches our rule (or filter). To do that

For this example we're going to have any mail that comes from microsoft.com deleted. In the first box beside the Add button type @microsoft.com, and then click the Add button. Click ok. Then click ok again. This will bring up the screen below. 

Click on OK to close this screen and go back to reading mail, or click on any of the other buttons to add more rules/filters, modify or delete any existing rules/filters. For complete information about how to create rules please refer to the online help provided with Outlook Express

V. Outlook Express (Mac)

Rules

The mail filters in OE 5.0 are very powerful and useful. You find them as Rules in the Tools Menu. In Claris Emailer they are referred to as "Mail Actions". Here is the default screen you get when you make a new rule.

 

When you make a mail rule you can have an unlimited number of criteria. Just neep clicking "Add Criteria" to create new ones.

In each criteria you may have up to 3 parts. A place to look, a modifier (is, is not, contains, begins with, etc) and what text to look for.

 

    

Then based on that combination there are unlimited actions which you can configure. Actions include move to folder, copy, delete, forward, redirect, reply, add or delete sender to contacts or a mailing list, set a color, play a sound, alert you with a text message, and even run an AppleScript. The possibilities are endless. 

The most effective and basic task that can be done is to set up filters to put new e-mails into proper folders. If you receive mail regularly from certain people, keeping up with them in your Inbox can be quite time consuming. All you need to do is set a mail rule similar to this: If "from" contains "Mom" then "move message" to folder "Mom" and "play sound" "whistle3".

 

 

You can add sounds to alert you to important e-mails and not have to interrupt your work to look for that anticipated response each time your mail is downloaded. These sounds need to be system sounds which are in your system suitcase.

I subscribe to a number of lists in single post mode so I do get many e-mails. I choose the sound played to alert me as to what has shown up in my mailbox. For instance, I use one sound for my Mac lists, as I do post to them with regularity and want to read responses ASAP, no sound for the lists which I read as time allows and as my last rule, I just play another sound to alert me that an email has not satisfied any rule set and is something I don't regularly receive.

 

 

Junk Mail Filter

Junk mail, also called spam, is mail that is sent to many people or groups, regardless of whether the recipients want to receive it. If you sometimes receive junk mail, use the Junk Mail Filter to automatically attempt to identify and manage such messages. The Junk Mail Filter uses certain criteria to attempt to classify messages you receive as junk mail.

 

 

The Junk Mail Filter never classifies messages from contacts in your Address Book as junk mail. To ensure that messages from a particular person or group are never mistakenly classified as junk mail, simply add the person to your Address Book. You can also add domains that you would not like to be classified as junk mail by typing the domain into the text box in the Junk Mail Filter.

You can specify a few actions to perform on potential junk mail, from applying a color to such messages, to running an AppleScript. If you want to apply further actions to junk messages that you receive, such as moving it to a certain folder, you can create a rule for that action.

 

 

Mailing List NOTE: In order to prevent the Junk Mail Filter from flagging messages from Mailing Lists you participate in, be sure to add the list to your address book when creating Mailing List Rules in the MLM.

 

CAUTION: You will want to play around with this filter for a while before you create any drastic rules like putting all junk into deleted items. You will find some unexpected results until you have tweaked this filter and added e-mail addresses of those correspondents which for some reason are flagged. I have had some very surprising mail tagged as "Junk". 

Applying the Rules

In order to apply a new rule you highlight the messages you want to apply it to and choose "Apply Rule" from the "Message" menu, or control-click and choose "apply rule" from the contextual menu.. If you would like either the Mailing List or Junk Mail rules to be applied choose "All Rules".

The order of execution is:

Mailing List Manager
Junk Mail Filter
User defined Rules (in the listed order)

Note: Parts of this document were taken from The Indiana University Knowledge Base (http://kb.indiana.edu/data/afaj.html?cust=6280), eclecTechs (http://www.valinet.com/filters.html), and MacOptions (http://www.macoptions.com/oe/mailrules.htm)