Point-N-Click Computer Solutions - October 2007 Newsletter

Tip of the Month:

Do you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express to read your e-mail? If so, this month's tip should be very helpful in reducing the amount of time needed to manage the mail in your inbox. This tip will benefit you whether you're on a company network with an exchange server or on a single workstation at home. This month I am talking about creating message rules. The idea is that you designate a condition or criteria by which to exam the email and then designate an action which can then be applied to the email in Outlook. Although this tool can help with spam I will assume in these examples most of the spam has already been eliminated and the goal is to manage you're good e-mails.

To start creating message rules in outlook express click on the "TOOLS" button at the top with your left mouse click, then drop down and hold your mouse over "MESSAGE RULES" and slide to the right and left click on the "MAIL" option. You'll then receive a "NEW MAIL RULE" popup menu. You'll notice this popup menu is divided into four sections. The first section is where you define the criteria for which to examine the e-mail question. The second section is where you set the action to be applied to the e-mail that met the condition in the first section. The third section will demonstrate the order of the steps that you have selected and will allow you to refine your rule. The fourth section is where you can name this rule.

Taking a closer look at the options within the new mail rule popup you'll see there are many options for managing and creating rules. One rule I have created examines the e-mail as it arrives and moves it into a sub folder that I previously created in my inbox for a client project. In order to create this rule I selected in the first section the option "Where the from line contains" and then in the second section I selected "Move to a specific folder". You'll notice in the third section my choices as well as some words in blue that are underlined. By selecting these blue words you'll have the ability to refine the conditions and actions. So if I select the blue word "Contains People" I have the option to choose e-mail addresses I would like to be moved to the sub folder. Then I need to click on the blue word "Specified" and choose the folder where I want the mail to go. By saving this rule it will exam new mail as it arrives in the inbox and if the criteria are met it will move the e-mail automatically to a sub folder.

There are many options that can be applied to e-mail that should help reduce the amount of time spent going through your inbox. Some of these options include "highlighting it with a color", "automatically replying to it", "forwarding it to another person", and much more.

It is very similar to accessing this rule in Microsoft Outlook, however there are more options by which the e-mail is handled. To access this tool in Microsoft Outlook left click on "TOOLS" in the top menu then left click on "Rules and Alerts". On the popup menu you'll need to click on the new button and you'll notice there are predefined templates or you can choose to create your own rule from scratch. I typically create my own rule from scratch so that I can see and select the options that I need. Creating the rules are very similar to my example above for Outlook Express.

For more information please click on the link provided here. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/CH063564671033.aspx and good luck.