Managing E-mail Messages with Rules

  
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When you have large volumes of incoming e-mail, Outlook Express can help you process it more efficiently. You can use rules in Outlook Express to automatically sort incoming messages into different folders, highlight certain messages in color, automatically reply to or forward certain messages, and much more.

 

  
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To create a rule for mail messages
  1. On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click Mail.
  2. If this is the first rule you are creating, proceed to step 3. Otherwise, on the Mail Rules tab, click New.
  3. Select the conditions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Conditions section. (You must select at least one condition.)

    You can specify multiple conditions for a single rule by clicking more than one check box. Click the and hyperlink in the Rule Description section to specify whether all of the rule conditions must be met before the specified action occurs (and) or whether at least one must be met (or).

  4. Select the actions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Actions section. (You must select at least one condition.)
  5. Click the underlined hyperlinks in the Rule Description section to specify the conditions or actions for your rule.

    You can click contains people or contains specific words in the Rule Description section to specify the people or words you'd like Outlook Express to look for in messages. If you enter multiple people or multiple words per condition, use the Options button in the Select People or Type Specific Words dialog boxes to further customize the condition.

  6. In the Name of the rule box, select the default name, type a new name for your rule, and then click OK

 

  
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