Creating filters in Outlook
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The root of all mail
The root of all mail
Creating a folder in Outlook is a rather simple task. Usually when creating folders, I keep them separate from my Inbox. To do this, begin by highlighting the top of your mailbox (in the folder list click on the line called Mailbox – Your Name.
Take action on your mail folder(s)
Take action on your mail folder(s)
Then right click and choose New Folder.
Create new folder dialog box
Create new folder dialog box
When you select the new folder menu item, you will be presented with a dialog box which will help you in creating and placing your folder.Enter the name of your new folder, and select the location within your mailbox you would like it to live. If you have clicked on Mailbox – Your Name as mentioned above, this choice should be highlighted in the create new folder dialog box.You will also see a box allowing you to select the type of items this folder should contain. For mail items, this should be set to Mail and Post items. If you were creating a subfolder for tasks or your calendar you would change this accordingly.Note: The folder contains box is populated based on which folder you highlighted when you told Outlook to create a new folder, mail items is selected when choosing the top of your mailbox because that type is most frequently used.
New folder created successfully
New folder created successfully
Once you have named your folder and chosen a place for it in your mailbox, click Ok and your new folder will appear in the folder list.
Create Folder Rules
Create Folder Rules
Now that we have created a place for this custom mail to be stored, keep in mind our example uses mail received to a special email address for resumes, you will need to create a rule to scan your whole mailbox each time it receives email and move the appropriate messages into your new folder.Creating rules can be done from scratch or from an existing message. Creating a rule from an existing message is rather simple, to do so locate a message in your inbox (or any other folder you wish to search for messages). Right click the message to bring up the context menu.
Create Rule Wizard
Create Rule Wizard
Complete the wizard for rules to finish the process.In the create rule dialog box you will see that Outlook has taken the selected email message and sliced it up into sections which accommodate a rule.Note: Most rules created from messages will be based on the message being from a certain sender, which I will walk through here, but could be based on the subject containing specific words, the message being sent to specific users, or all of the above
Specifying settings
Specifying settings
To allow Outlook to watch your mailbox for email from a particular sender, select the first box under the conditions section.
Where to store the messages
Where to store the messages
Now that we have chosen the condition to check, we need to tell Outlook to do something with the messages that meet that criteria. This figure shows the Move To folder option selected with our new folder chosen to receive these messages.
All Done!
All Done!
Once you have the folder selected and all desired criteria set, click ok on the create rule dialog box.That’s all there is to creating rules from existing email. When you receive an email which meets the criteria of your rule, this email will be moved to the folder specified in the rule. Keep in mind that you can turn rules on and off and change the folders that these rules watch and deliver email in to.
