Setting up Rules in MS Outlook

Rule help you manage your e-mail messages by performing actions on messages that match a specific set of conditions. After you create a rule, Microsoft Outlook applies the rule when a message arrives in your Inbox or when you send a message. For example, you can automatically:

• Forward to your manager all messages sent by Judy Lew when they arrive in your Inbox.
• Assign the category Sales to all messages you send that have the word "sales" in the Subject box
• Flag each meeting request or meeting update you receive from your manager

Rules fall into two general categories: notification and organization. Notification rules alert you in some way when you receive a particular message. For example, you can create a rule that automatically sends an e-mail message to your mobile telephone when you receive a message from a family member. Organization rules perform one or more actions on a message. For example, you can create a rule that moves certain messages to a folder or flags them for follow-up on a particular day.

You can also run one or more of your rules manually. Running rules manually allows you to selectively apply them to messages already in your Inbox or in another folder.

You can add exceptions to your rules for special circumstances, such as when a message is flagged for follow-up action or is marked with high importance. A rule is not applied to a message if any one of the exceptions you specify is met.

Let rules help clear out your crowded Inbox

Your Inbox may be filling up with daily reports sent by the same person, or with a professional mailing list's messages. Since you may not have the time to read all these messages when they arrive you can have them moved automatically to another folder where you can retrieve them later. Rules can help in such a situation by allowing you to choose which messages go where.

If you regularly receive the same reports or messages from the same person, creating a rule is even easier, because you can base the rule on those messages. First you select an existing message that represents the messages that you want to move and start creating the rule based on that message. Outlook fills in the important criteria from that message for you. All you have to do is tell Outlook where to send the messages e.g. into another folder where they will be available to you anytime, but no longer cluttering your Inbox.

Move all specified messages to another folder

• Right-click the message that you want to base the rule on, and then on the shortcut menu, click Create Rule. In the Create Rule dialog box, select the check boxes for the options that are already filled in with information from your selected message.
• Select the Move e-mail to folder check box
• Click an existing folder or click New to create a new folder to store the messages
• To add more conditions, actions, or exceptions to the rule, click Advanced Options, and then follow the rest of the instructions in the Rules Wizard

Tip - To run the rule as soon as you create it, select the Run this rule now on the messages already in folder check box on the last page of the Rules Wizard.

All the messages already in your Inbox (or whichever folder you chose) are moved to the other folder. To test your new rule, take a look at your new folder and ensure the correct messages were moved.

There are many other ways to use rules to reduce the load in your Inbox. Rules, with their variety of conditions, criteria, and actions, allow you a great deal of flexibility and choices in how and where you steer your messages.

Source: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP010524761033.aspx