Setting your Mail Filter Rules

Mail filters are defined from the Options, Mail Filter tab. Mail filtering allows you to define a set of rules and corresponding actions to apply to incoming mail. When an incoming mail message matches the conditions of a filter rule, the corresponding actions associated with that rule are applied. For example, you could define a filter rule to identify mail coming from your immediate supervisor and move it to a folder called "From My Boss".

Each filter rule consists of one or more conditions and one or more actions.

Filter Conditions

Each filter rule can contain several conditions. Examples of conditions include:

• Specific addresses in the From:, To:, Reply-To:, or other addresses in the email header
• The presence or absence of file attachments
• Words or character strings in the subject or body of the mail message
• All the conditions allow you to specify "not" as a negative condition. For example, you can specify mail that does not contain a particular word.

You can combine conditions to search for mail with more complex characteristics.

Any vs. All

Conditions within a filter rule can be grouped using Any or All . The use of these terms is similar to the "AND" vs. "OR" type searches described under the Search feature, with Any being OR and All being AND.

If you choose Any when defining conditions for a new filter rule, then a message that meets any one of the conditions is considered a match. However, if you choose All, every condition specified in that filter rule must apply in order for that message to match the filter.

Filter Rule Actions

Each filter rule can specify one or more actions. Actions include:

• Leave the message in the Inbox (no action).
• Move the message to another specified folder.
• Tag the message
• Mark the message as read or as flagged.
• Discard. This action drops the email message silently. It is not the same as the Delete action on your menu. Deleting an item moves it to the Trash folder. The Discard action prevents the message from ever reaching your mailbox.
• Stop further evaluation. This action prevents the application of any additional filter rules to mail messages that match the current rule.

The "stop further evaluation" action should be the last action within each filter rule. If it is not specified, subsequent filter rules are evaluated for the mail message even if the current filter is a match. It is not likely that you would want to have the same message match more than one filter rule and undergo multiple, perhaps contradictory actions.

When Filters are Applied
Each incoming message is tested against your filter rules at the time that the mail is delivered and the filter actions are applied to matching messages at that time.

Order of Application by System
The filters are applied in the order they are listed on the Options, Mail Filter tab. You can change that order.

Within each filter, the conditions are used to test each mail message. If the message meets the conditions collectively (using the Any or All designation as specified in the filter rule), it is considered a match. The order of the conditions within each filter is not important.

If the message matches the conditions, all actions associated with that filter rule are applied, in the order in which they appear in the filter.

Active vs. Inactive Filters
All filters currently defined are listed on the Options, Mail Filter page. The Active check box allows you to turn filters on or off without having to delete the filter rules.