Using Rules In Microsoft Outlook

Do you find yourself doing the same actions over and over in Outlook? Like placing a message in a specific folder or assigning it a category? That’s where Rules can help! They’re easy to use too, since there’s a wizard to walk you through the process.

Our screen shots will show Outlook 2007, but this works in all versions of Outlook since 1997.

In our example, we’re going to create a rule to move all messages received from a certain email address to a folder. Here’s how to start.

First, click on Tools menu and select Rules and Alerts. Next, you’ll see the Rules and Alerts box displayed. Click on the New Rule button and the Rules Wizard will appear. As you can see, there are several different types of rules you can create. For our example, let’s use the first rule which moves a message from someone to a folder. Click Next.

The next screen asks us what is the first condition we want to use. At the top, “people or distribution list” will be check marked. Go to the bottom portion of the box labeled “Step 2” and click on “people or distribution list” to select the email address of the message you want to move. Either select it from the list that appears or type in the email address. Click OK. Now click Next to continue.

The next screen is similar to the last screen. At the top, it asks “What do you want to do with the message”? The box labeled “move it to the specified folder” will be check marked. At the bottom labeled “Step 2”, click on the word “specified” to select the specific folder you want the message to go to. We’ll select our Clients folder and click OK. The box will now look like this, showing the sender’s email address and the destination folder.

The next screen asks if there are any exceptions. We’ll skip this step, so click Next again.

In the last step, give your rule a name and press finish. Your rule is complete! Now, all messages from “bob@somewhere.com” will automatically be moved to the Clients folder.

For rules to work, Outlook has to be open when the message is received. Have any questions or want a more complicated rule? Give us a call at (949) 481-1232.