Filtering mail using rules

You can use mail rules to move, forward, or delete 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.

To create a rule

Procedure

  1. In the navigation pane of your mail, click the plus sign (+) beside Tools and then click 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 email address while you are out of the office.
  4. Click Add.
  5. Do any of the following:
    Table 1. 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).
    Table 2. Actions
    Action Description

    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.

    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.
  7. Click Add Action.
  8. Do any of the following:
    Table 3. 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.

What if multiple rules apply to one email?

Rules are processed in the order in which they are listed under Tools > Rules. If you have multiple rules that apply to a single message, then the rules are applied to that message in order. If you only want one of those rules to apply, then use stop processing to stop processing after the first rule.

Procedure

  1. Select the rule and click Edit.
  2. Under Specify Actions, select stop processing, and then click Add Action.
  3. Click OK.
  4. If you need to change the order of the rules, click the Move Up button Move Up button.

Example

For example, you could define the following rules:

WHEN Subject contains Marketing THEN Move to folder Marketing Information AND Stop Processing further Rules

WHEN Subject contains Sales THEN Move to folder Sales Information

In this example, if the subject of a message contains Marketing and Sales, the message is moved to the Marketing Information folder, and then all rule processing stops. If the stop processing action is not present, the message is first moved to the Marketing Information folder, and then moved to the Sales Information folder when the second rule runs.

To edit or delete rules

Procedure

  1. In the navigation pane of your mail, click the plus sign (+) beside Tools and then click Rules.
  2. Edit or delete rules using the action bar above the rules list.
    Note: If a mail rule is deleted before it is disabled, it may remain active in certain circumstances; it is recommended that you disable a mail rule before you delete it.