For Windows and Macintosh Users by Wesley A. Fryer www.wesfryer.com These specific steps for different email programs are provided as a supplement to the article "Maintaining Email Sanity with Rules and Filters." Steps are available for the following programs for Windows and Macintosh Users: Microsoft Outlook Outlook Express Eudora Microsoft Entourage ( Macintosh only) Yahoo Mail (webmail) Lotus Notes Mail Rules in Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook for Windows is included with the Microsoft Office productivity software suite, and can be used to check either POP and IMAP email. Additionally, if an organization uses Microsoft Exchange mail servers, Outlook can be configured to directly access the exchange server and provide additional email features for users. These include: Group meeting planning (checking the calendars of all invitees using the same Exchange server to find an available time for all participants) “Global” email address access (using the Exchange server address book for everyone on the server, rather than maintaining names and email addresses in a separate address book) Auto-responder out-of-office replies (Customized messages sent automatically by the Exchange server for a defined period of time when you are out of the office and away from email) Whether using Outlook with or without connectivity to an Exchange server, mail rules can be created in the same way. The following online tutorials are available for Windows users: How to Filter Junk and Adult Content E-mail Creating a From Rule for an Internet Mail Address Outlook Rules Wizard Troubleshooting If these online tutorials are not enough, an entire book titled "Overcome Email Overload with Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002" is available commercially: While the Macintosh version of Outlook (Outlook 2001, compatible with OS 9 but not native to OS X) supports the basic functionality of its Windows counterpart, many features are missing. The most important difference is that Outlook 2001 for Macintosh ONLY works with Microsoft Exchange Server: it cannot check other internet based (POP/IMAP) email. Basic mail rules can still be created, however. To create a rule: Click on the message for which a rule will be created. From the TOOLS menu, choose RULES. Specify the condition(s) for which the rule will be applied. Specify the action(s) which will be applied when the conditions are met. Microsoft Outlook 2001 for Macintosh does NOT include support for sychronization with Palm or other handheld operating systems. Macwindows.com offers a short comparison between Outlook 2001 and Entourage. Microsoft Outlook is commercial software for Windows users and a free download for Macintosh users. Mail Rules for Outlook Express Its less powerful sibling, Outlook Express, is available free for users of both platforms, but offers only email management without the calendar and organization-wide information management functionality. Program links for Outlook Express for Windows and Macintosh are available. A tutorial on setting up Mail rules in Outlook Express for Macintosh users is available. The articles "Corral Your E-mail" from the October 2000 edition of Macworld and "Frying Spam with Outlook Express 5" by Gregory Tetrault, also provide excellent help for filtering unwanted mail in OE. . For Windows users: The tutorial How to Configure Inbox Assistant to Filter Messages is available from Microsoft. Mail Filters in Eudora One of the best sources for information and links about Eudora (for Windows and Macintosh) is Andrew Starr's Unofficial Eudora Site. Mail rules are called FILTERS in Eudora. Tutorials explaining how to to use Filters in Eudora are available for both: Windows Users Macintosh Users A thorough set of tutorials on additional Eudora topics (including those listed above) is available from Eudora.com. Mail Rules in Microsoft Entourage Starting with the release of Microsoft Office 98, Macintosh users have enjoyed a powerful email software alternative to Eudora and Outlook Express for POP and IMAP email accounts. Entourage, further enhanced in Office 2001 and most recently in Office X for the UNIX based Macintosh operating system X, is a PIM (Personal Information Manager) including calendaring, to-do list (task manager,) and other features similar to the stand-alone version of MS Outlook, but also includes features not presently available in other email programs. The auto-text-cleanup feature allows text wrap to be restored and forwarding carats (repeated greater than symbols on the left side of each text line > ) to be quickly removed from a message being forwarded. The drag and drop functionality within its address book allows large numbers of comma delimited email addresses to be copied and pasted from other files directly into the To, CC, or BCC email fields, and mailing lists can be managed much more easily with Entourage than in either Outlook or Eudora. Entourage is not available for Windows operating systems. To create a mail rule in Entourage for OfficeX: Click on an email message for which a rule is desired. From the TOOLS menu, choose RULES. Click the NEW button and type a name for the mail rule. Under the IF category, select if the rule will be applied when ALL or ANY of the specified conditions are met. Click the pop-up menu ALL MESSAGES and choose the email characteristic for the condition (from a specific sender, subject contains certain text, etc.) The text from the email selected in step one will automatically be inserted in the adjacent text field, and edited as desired. Under the THEN category, change the default actions as desired. Like other email programs, Entourage also includes a junk mail filter. Once enabled by selecting JUNK MAIL FILTER from the Tools menu, the “sensitivity” of the junk mail filter can be adjusted. This filter in Entourage changes the displayed category color of suspected junk mail messages to grey by default, making the messages easier to identify and therefore delete. The higher the sensitivity setting, the more email messages will be classified as “junk.” Applescript actions can be performed on suspected junk mail, but to move or delete a mail message without writing an Applescript program a mail rule must be created as previously explained. Microsoft warns users about the danger of setting up an email program to automatically delete suspected junk mail: valuable email messages may be incorrectly classified and therefore missed. Whenever a contact is included in the address book, email from their address cannot be classified as junk mail. Domain names can also be exempted from the junk mail filter. It is not a good idea to include free email provider domains like hotmail.com or yahoo.com as exempt domains, since those are often used by spammers. A user may want to add their organizational domain, however, so all messages from users@myschool.edu will not be mistakenly classified as junk. Unfortunately, Entourage does not provide a filter for identifying bad jokes or other irritating forwarded email, but (as far as I know) no email software offers these features. Mail Filters in Yahoo Mail Free, web-based mail like Yahoo mail provides some basic filtering features. After logging in to Yahoo mail, to set up a filter: Click OPTIONS in the left sidebar. Under MAIL MANAGEMENT, click FILTERS. Click the CREATE button to make a new filter. Specify the conditions for the filter. Popup menus are provided to choose if the selected item should contain, not contain, start with, or end with specified text. Specify the folder messages meeting the criteria should be moved into ("Delivered" to in the syntax of Yahoo mail) Click SAVE. All new mail sent to Yahoo mail will now have that filter applied before being displayed in the web browser. Note that if email is downloaded to another email program like Outlook Express or Eudora, mail filters within Yahoo mail are unnecessary: mail filters should instead be created within the email program. Mail filters in Yahoo Mail should be created when a user primarily accesses Yahoo mail through browser-based web mail. Yahoo mail also offers an 'address blocking' feature in the same MAIL MANAGEMENT options list as FILTERS. This option allows blocking of all email from specific email addresses, so email from those sources will never be received / accepted. Mail Filters in Lotus Notes Lotus Notes is a communications software package available in its 'client' version for both Macinotsh and Windows systems. Depending on the version of Lotus Notes in use, to create a mail rule / filter in Notes, an AGENT or a RULE must be created. The following tutorials are available to help with this process: SPAM Filtering in Notes 5 (Notes.net) Filtering email in Lotus Notes Version 5 (University of Windsor) Troubleshooting Script for Notes Scheduled Agents (and Agent Manager) Lotus Notes FAQ on email filtering for versions 4, 4.5, and 4.6.5 An Anti-SPAM Filter Agent is also available for Notes 5 users. More support for Lotus Notes users is available directly from IBM.   Wesley Fryer is the Director of Distance Learning and webmaster for the College of Education at Texas Tech University. He provides instructional technology training and support to K-16 educators as a consultant and through his free website, 'Tools for the TEKS.' Contact him at wesfryer@yahoo.com. Tools for the TEKS home | Article Archive | Technology Workshops Mailing List | Feedback | Tools and Techniques | Technology Idea Exchange Contact me using this webform. Links to my blogs are also available. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.