Create Rule button

The Create Rule dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9-21. First you need to specify a condition for the rule.

4

4..

Check the

From Colonel Sanders checkbox

.

This will apply the rule to all e-mail messages from Colonel Sanders.

Next, tell Outlook what you want to do when it receives an e-mail message from Colonel Sanders. For this exercise we’ll tell Outlook to move messages from Colonel Sanders to a Picnic folder.

5

5..

Click the

Select Folder button

.

The Rules and Alerts dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9-22. Now you have to specify where Outlook should move the e-mail.

6

6..

Scroll down the folder list until you find the

Practice folder

. Expand this folder by clicking its

button

.

Outlook expands the folder and displays all its subfolders.

7

7..

Expand the Inbox folder by clicking its

button

. Select the

Picnic Project

folder

and click

OK

.

This will move all e-mail messages from Colonel Sanders to the Picnic folder.

8

8..

Click

OK

.

Outlook confirms the creation of the new rule. If you want, you can apply the rule to the messages that are already in your Inbox. For example, you could move all your existing messages from Colonel Sanders to the Picnic Project folder. For this exercise we just want to apply the rule to new, incoming e-mail messages.

9

9..

Click

OK

.

That’s all there is to creating a rule by example! The new rule will check all incoming e-mail messages and move them to the Picnic folder if they are from Colonel Sanders.

Lesson 9-13: Creating a Rule with the Rule Wizard

Create Rule

button

Other Ways to Create a Rule by Example:

• Right-click a message you want to base the rule on and select Create Rule from the shortcut menu.

Figure 9-23

The Rules and Alerts dialog box.

Figure 9-24

The first step of the Rules Wizard dialog box.

Figure 9-25

An example of a rule created with the Rules Wizard.

Figure 9-23

Figure 9-24

4. Except If… With “picnic” in the Subject or “picnic” in the message body. 3. What Do You

Want to do to the Message? Move it to the Picnic Project folder. 2. Conditions to

Check With “picnic” in the Subject or “picnic” in the message body. 1. Type of Rule

Check messages when they arrive.

Creating a rule with the Rule Wizard isn’t quite as easy as creating a rule by example, but it’s still quite easy to set up and use—and that’s the topic of this lesson.

1

1..

Click the

Mail button

in the Navigation Pane.

Here’s how to create a rule using the Rules Wizard.

2

2..

Select

Tools

→

Rules and Alerts

from the menu bar.

The Rules and Alerts dialog box appears. This is where you can add new rules and manage existing rules.

3

3..

Click the

New Rule button

.

The first window of the Rules Wizard appears. You have two options for creating a rule:

•

Start creating a rule from a template:

Lets you create a rule by selecting common rule templates.

•

Start creating a blank rule:

Lets you create a rule from scratch. This option is a little more complicated but is much more flexible.

4

4..

Select the

Start from a blank rule

option.

Now you have to specify if you want the rule to check incoming or outgoing messages. We’ll use the default “Check messages when they arrive” option.

5

5..

Click

Next

.

Next, you need to tell the Rules Wizard what conditions to look for. For example, you might tell the Rules Wizard to look for messages that come from your manager. For this lesson, we want to look for the word “picnic” in any incoming e-mails.

6

6..

Find and check the

with specific words in the subject

option.

Now you need to specify the specific word(s) that Outlook should look for in the Subject field in the Rule description section at the bottom of the dialog box.

7

7..

Click the

specific words

link in the Rule description section near the bottom of the dialog box.

A dialog box appears and prompts you to enter a word or phrase to search for.

8

8..

Type

picnic

, click

Add

and click

OK

.

The word “picnic” appears in the Rule description section. Some rules have only one set of information to consider; others have two or more. We want to add another condition to our rule—one that checks the message body for the word picnic as well.

9

9..

Find and check the

with specific words in the body

option.

The new condition is added to the Rule description section.

1

100..

Click the

specific words

link in the Rule description section.

Once again, a dialog box appears and prompts you to enter the phrase to search for.

1

111..

Type

picnic

, click

Add

and click

OK

.

Compare your dialog box to the one shown in Figure 9-24.

1

122..

Click

Next

.

Now that you’ve defined the conditions for your Rule, you need to tell Outlook what action to take when it encounters a message with the word picnic in the Subject or body. You have lots of options to choose from here—from forwarding the message, to deleting the message, to flagging the message.

We want our Rule to automatically send any picnic messages to the Picnic Project folder that we created earlier.

1

133..

Find and check the

move it to the specified folder

option.

The Rule Wizard adds the “move it to the specified folder” option to the Rule Description. Now you need to tell Outlook where to move the messages.

1

144..

Click the

specified

link in the Rule description section.

Out jumps a dialog box with your Folder List. All you have to do here is select the folder where you want to move any picnic messages.

1

155..

Click the

Picnic Projectfolder

located under the Inbox folder in the Practice folder, and then click

OK

. Click

Next

.

You’re almost finished. The last step of the Rules Wizard is specifying any exceptions to the rule. For example,

Chapter Nine: Organizing and Finding Information

189

The University of Salford

Quick Reference To Create a Rule with the Rule Wizard:

1. Select Tools → Rules and Alerts from the menu.

2. Click the New Rule button.

3. Select the Start from a blank rule option, select the type of rule you want to create and click

Next.

4. Select the condition(s) you want

to check.

5. If necessary, define the

conditions in the bottom of the dialog box.

6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for any additional conditions you want to check. Click Next when you’re finished.

7. Specify what you want to do with

the messages that meet the specified conditions. If necessary, define the actions in the bottom of the dialog box. Click Next when you’re finished.

8. Specify any exceptions to the

condition(s). If necessary, define the exceptions in the bottom of the dialog box. Click Next when you’re finished.

9. Enter a name for the new rule

and click Finish.

1

166..

Click

Next

.

The last step of the Rules Wizard is giving your new rule a name.

1

177..

Type

Picnic

and click

Finish

.

The new Picnic rule appears in the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

1

188..

Click

OK

to close the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

Lesson 9-14: Managing Rules

If you have to depend on several of the rules, you’ll eventually want to change and delete some of them. Microsoft has made it much easier to manage existing rules in Outlook 2003. You need to open the Rules and Alerts dialog box to manage your existing rules…

1

1..

Select

Tools

→

Rules and Alerts

from the menu.

The Rules and Alerts dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9-26. This is where you can add, delete, and manage Outlook’s rules. Let’s take a look at how to edit an existing rule.

2

2..

Select any existing rule and click the

Change Rule button

.

A menu with various editing options appears; if you wanted, you could edit the rule settings, rename the rule, or change the action that is associated with the rule. We’ll leave the selected rule alone for this exercise.

3

3..

Click

<Esc>

to close the menu without making any changes.

If you don’t want Outlook to use a rule you can disable it by unchecking it.

4

4..

Uncheck the

Picnic rule

.

Here’s how to delete a rule…

5

5..

Select the

Picnic rule

you created in an earlier lesson and click the

Delete button

.

Outlook deleted the Picnic rule. Go ahead and delete any other practice rules you have created.

6

6..

Select the

Colonel Sanders rule

and click the

Delete button

.

Outlook deletes the selected rule.

Figure 9-26

Manage Outlook’s rules in the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

The Change Rule

In document Learn How to Read and Understand Business & Home-Time Text in Microsoft Outlook (Page 187-189)