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Use rules to manage your email
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Use rules to manage your email

Use rules to manage your email

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Stay organized in Outlook 2013 by creating rules that automatically act on an arriving or sent message that meets the conditions you specify.

How rules help you manage email messages

Rules help reduce manually filing or taking the same action when a similar message arrives. Unlike Quick Steps, rules typically are always on and run automatically. For example, when a message is received from a specified person, it is automatically moved to the folder that you designate.

The Rules Wizard helps you design rules to manage messages. Rules fall into one of two categories — organization and notification.

The Rules Wizard includes templates for the most frequently used rules, which include the following:

  • Stay Organized    These rules help you file and follow up on messages. For example, you can create a rule for messages from a specific sender, such as Anne Weiler, with the word "sales" in the Subject line, to be flagged for follow-up, categorized as Sales, and moved to a folder named Anne’s Sales.

  • Stay Up to Date    These rules notify you in some way when you receive a particular message. For example, you can create a rule that automatically sends a message to a mobile device when you receive a message from a family member.

  • Start from a blank rule    These are rules that you create without the aid of a rule template and that you can completely customize.

Want more?

Manage email messages by using rules

Edit an Outlook rule

Import or export a set of rules

This email was sent to my company’s Film Club distribution list.

We’ll create a rule that evaluates if an email was sent to the Film Club distribution list, and if it is, move it from the Inbox to a different folder.

I right-click it, point to Rules.

You can move messages from a sender or to whom the email was sent. I click Always Move Messages To: Film Club.

If you already have a folder you want to use, click it, and click OK. I want to create a new folder.

I click New, type the name of the folder (Film Club in this example), click OK, and click OK again.

The rule is created and this email as well as future emails sent to the Film Club distribution list, will automatically be moved to the Film Club folder.

Up next, Use templates to create rules.

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