A brief guide to using rules in Outlook

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2002. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

Outlook is the most commonly used email software and, although not loved by all, has many useful features to help you manage your email more effectively.

The rules wizard is a tool that allows you to set up automatic commands that can move incoming emails to a specific folder, forward emails to a specified address, alert you when messages from a certain individual arrive, automatically delete emails from specified addresses, and other functions.

If you are using Outlook on a network with Microsoft Exchange Server then rules can be either server or client based. Server-based rules will operate when you are not logged in, whereas client rules only work when you are physically logged in. A useful server rule is auto-forwarding: this enables you to forward all emails received at work to your home email.

Moving messages to specified folders

Rather than having all your emails delivered into your default inbox, why not send emails from certain people or organisations into their own folders? This clears the clutter and can make it easier to find them later. First you need to create the folders. I create them as subfolders under my inbox, though on a networked machine you can create them in a public or shared folder.

Next run the rules wizard and select the move messages rule. The standard options are to select which people from your address book should be moved and into which folder.

If you belong to the Emis List you will know that you can get a large number of emails every day; you can now automatically move all these messages to their own folder.

I also have automatic move rules set up to move mail from other lists and certain individuals into their appropriate folders. I also have multiple email accounts set up so that I can check my doctors.net and Yahoo and other emails at work. I have a rule set up such that email sent to the doctors.net address goes into a certain folder. At home I have emails for my wife automatically going into her inbox. You can create shortcuts for all these folders in the shortcut bar.

Auto-forwarding email

Unless you have the new secure dialup that logs you onto your network as a full user and allows you to access your email directly, there can be times when it is useful to read your work emails. One method of doing this is to use the out of office assistant, which can auto-forward all emails. It has the disadvantage that it constantly needs turning on and off and automatically sends everyone a message, which can be quite annoying. An alternative is to use one of the more complex rules that allows you to specify that under certain conditions emails are forwarded to an address that you select.

You can set up exclusions for messages that you don’t want forwarded. For example, I exclude all messages from the EMIS List as I don’t want to be bothered by them twice. I only auto-forward emails sent only to me, as the vast majority of multiple-addressee email is junk from the PCT or spam. I also add people as exclusions if they only send me messages that I will only deal with at work. Care must be taken when using this feature as it is easy to clog up the internet with messages passing backwards and forwards. Care must also be taken not to send potentially confidential information to a less secure address.

Order of rules

It is worth commenting that when setting up rules they are processed in the order that they appear on the screen; this can have significance if you find a rule isn’t working properly.

Other interesting rules

There are lots of other rules to play with. I was getting fed up of receiving 20+ emails in surgery per day, so now I use the ‘alert me when email arrives’ rule to only alert me when email from interesting people arrives; the rest I check at a more convenient time.