SOHOLogics

Use Rules In Outlook To Sort Your Mail

By: Christy Osborne

Make Microsoft Outlook play by the rules! This helpful tutorial will introduce you to the basics of messaging rules in Outlook. Check this article out to learn how to sort your Inbox.

Make your Outlook play by the rules! And, what are rules? Rules allow you to manage your email messages with certain criteria in Microsoft Outlook. The great news is that once you create a rule, Microsoft applies the rule each time a message is received in your Inbox. Just a few of your new-found options with rules include:

• Automatically forwarding messages when sent from a specified person.
• Assign categories to messages you send in the Subject box.
• Flag meeting requests and updates you receive.
• Sort email messages into folders.

These rules can be either notifications which alert you when specific messages are received or organizational tools that move certain messages to folders and can even flag them to be dealt with later. In this particular segment of what I hope to be five articles, we will explore how to create an easy rule which will sort spam into the Deleted Items folder. Lets begin!

1. Locate and select the message in your inbox you would like to sort into the Deleted Items folder. In this case, I have selected a [SOHO.Spam] labeled message.
2. Click the create rules icon on the toolbar.
   
   
   
   
3. The Create Rule window will appear. You will notice that I have checked the Subject Contains check box and added/editted the input box to specify [SOHO.Spam].
   
   
   
   
4. Now check the Move Email To Folder check box and click the Select Folder button.
5. Select the Deleted Items folder (or whichever folder you prefer) and click Ok on the Choose A Folder box.
6. Now click Ok on the Create Rule box.
7. You will now be presented with the following screen. You can check the check box on the Success window if you wish Outlook to sort any messages you have matching the rule in your Inbox. Hit Ok when done.
   
   
   
   

You are all finished. Now Outlook will move any message received which contains [SOHO.Spam] in the message subject to your Deleted Items folder. What a great way to take care of spam. Not to mention a great way to sort good messages into a folder. What other rules can you create using the options in the Create Rule box?