How-To Guides: Filtering E-mails Which Contain Unacceptable Language

We all seem to get lots of unwanted and sometimes even “X-rated” email and although we may not always be able to stop its entry into our mailbox, at least we can painlessly transfer it from our Inbox to another folder where we can ignore or delete it at our leisure.  This Quick Click will show you how to create a Rule which will filter emails based on contents.

 

• Open Outlook.
• Click on Tools and select” Rules Wizard.”

• Click on “New.”
• Select “Start creating a rule from a template” and “Move message based on content.”

 

• Click on “Next.”

 

• Under “Rule description”, click on specific words, and type in each word (ex: viagra – you do not need to use upper case) for which you wish to screen or filter your incoming mail. Press "add" after each word and they will be added to the search list.  When you are done, click on OK.
• Under “Rule description”, click on “specified” folder.

 

 

 

• Click on Personal folder and either select an existing folder (such as junk) in which to store the filtered mail or create a new folder. Suggestion: make a folder called “Unacceptable Mail”. The filtered mail will go to this folder and you can check it occasionally to make sure something you need has not gone there because it innocently referenced one of your filtered terms. Click on OK and Next. Click on OK on the following menu as well.
  

 

CAUTION:  Do not send this mail directly to the delete folder unless you are absolutely certain that you will NEVER receive a valued email that references one of the words you have listed in your filter. They would be automatically deleted without your knowledge.

 

• Your new folder will be listed under “Rule description”. Select the condition “with specific words in the subject or body” and click on Next.
  

 

• Verify that the “move it to the specified folder” is checked and that the folder under the rule description is the folder you have designated. Click on Next.

• You can also create exceptions for rules (Click on “Help” for instructions on exceptions.) For now, click on Next.
  

 

• Enter a name for the rule and Click on Turn on the Rule so that it will activate. You may also click on Run this rule on messages already in “Inbox” and it will transfer any mail with the identified words from your Inbox to designated folder. Click on Finish. You will probably see some activity as mail is moved to the designated folder.
  

 

• The final step but a very important one is to set the order in which rules are followed. If you want all of your mail to be filtered for language, move your new rule to the top of the list by selecting the rule and pressing the Move Up button until it is at the top of the list. Use the window’s scroll bar to make sure it is at the very top.
• Click on OK and your rule is set.

You can add more terms to this rule in the future by going to Tools, Rules Wizard, selecting the rules, and selecting modify and following the remainder of the above instructions.

 

[Posted on August 2, 2005]