In our last article, we discussed how you can use folders in your mail software to organize your messages.  We also briefly discussed another automated feature called rules that allows you to configure your mail software to automatically act on any messages that meet certain criteria—by moving them to a particular folder, deleting them entirely, and/or replying to them with a predetermined response.  In this issue, we’ll show you how to set up rules using three of the more popular mail clients—Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Netscape Mail.

In Microsoft Outlook, you can create a new rule by first clicking on the Tools option on your main menu.  Depending on your version of Outlook, you would then choose either Rules and Alerts (Outlook 2003) or Rules Wizard (Outlook 2000 and earlier).  You’d then click on the New button (may say New Rule) to create a new rule.

That will take you to this screen, which allows you to begin setting up your new rule.  You can either begin from a previously saved template or set up your rule from scratch.  When starting from scratch, you would first select whether you want to check messages after they arrive or when they are sent (incoming or outgoing messages).  Once you select that and click Next, you’ll see a pretty comprehensive list of possible criteria for your rule similar to this screen.  Once you’ve made your selection there (and clicked Next), you’ll see another list of possible actions to perform on the message meeting your criteria; this screen gives you a selection of those.  After you select your action and click Next, you may be able to set certain exceptions for your rule; after/if you do that, you’ll be asked to give your rule a name.  Once you do that and click Finish, your rule will be set up and will start working on any messages you send/receive.

In Microsoft Outlook Express, the steps are similar but somewhat more compressed.  You would still start at the main menu and click Tools, and then highlight Message Rules (which is slightly different from Outlook), and then choose the Mail option to set up a new rule.  You’ll then see a screen listing all the rules you have set up; click New to set up a new rule or Modify to change an existing one.  In either instance, you’ll see this screen which compresses all the steps involved in an Outlook rule into a single screen.  Make your changes on all the particular options on that screen and then click OK to save the rule.

As you might guess, Netscape Mail has several differences from the previous two.  You still go to its main menu and click Tools, and then choose Message Filters.  You still see a screen listing all your current rules and can click either New to set up a new rule or Edit to change an existing one.

However, here the differences start to come into play.  The only options you have for actions to perform are to move the message to a particular folder in your mailbox, change its label, or change its importance.  You can still set up a rule to automatically delete messages (by moving them to the Trash folder), but you don’t have the option to automatically reply to them.  So the filtering options here may not be as comprehensive as the other programs . . . but you can still use them to work with your messages, especially to organize them into folders such as we discussed last time.

Mail software rules can be a big help to you, by organizing your messages or removing ones you don’t want/need to see, or automatically replying to people who send messages to you.  With a little practice and this article as a guide, you can set up rules to make your mail work for you.

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