How to Set Rules in Outlook

Small business owners, corporate personnel and independent contractors are all face with the same day-to-day business tasks. Maintaining a calendar for appointments and tasks, creating to-do lists and keeping track of business contacts and exchanging email are things that must be done to be successful. Microsoft Outlook handles all of those tasks and can be made to handle them even more efficiently. One efficiency method available to users is to create rules for email. These can be designed to automatically sort, save, print or perform a number of other actions on email depending on the criteria you define.

Instructions

1. Open Microsoft Outlook. By default, Outlook opens in the email window, but many people customize this to open automatically in other sections, such as to-do lists. Open your inbox if you are not automatically taken there.

2. Click "Tools" on the menu bar and then click "Rules and Alerts..." If you are not viewing your inbox or some other folder in your email account, "Rules and Alerts..." will not appear on the "Tools" menu.

3. Activate the "E-mail Rules" tab if it is not activated by default and click the "New Rule..." button. Click on "Start from a blank rule" option and click whether your rule will apply to email being sent or being received. Click the "Next" button.
   There is an option to start from a template, and if you are using a common rule, such as auto-forward, this may save a little time. You will need to customize the template rule using some of the steps that follow.

4. Select the condition you want to check your e-mail against. For instance, if you wanted to create a rule that sends requiring an action to a pre-defined folder called "action required," you would choose "flagged for action." Once your conditionals are chosen, you may need to refine them. In this example, you must click on the word "action," which appears as a blue, underlined hyperlink, in the "Step 2" box and select which flagged actions you wish to move to the folder. Any rule that requires refinement will have a word that appears as a blue, underlined hyperlink. Click the "Next" button

5. Select what action you want taken with the emails that meet the criteria in the previous step. In this example, you would choose "Move it to the specified folder." As before, you must refine the criteria by clicking "specified" in the "Step 2" box. For this example, you would select the "action-required" folder from the pop up menu that appears. Click "Next"

6. Select which exceptions will apply to the rule you have created and refine them just as you refined the criteria and action portions. Click "Next."

7. Give the rule a name in the form that pops up. Deselect "Turn on this rule" if you do not want it to take effect immediately. Click "Finish" and then click "OK." The rule is now ready. To activate, deactivate or change the rule at any time, click "Tools" on the menu bar, then selecting "Rules and Alerts..." and highlighting the rules you want to change. You have the option of either activating or deactivating the rule, changing it or deleting it.

Tips & Warnings

• If you use multiple rules, they will be executed in the order they are listed. This can sometimes have unintended consequences. To correct these, follow the instructions for editing rules and adjust the order as necessary.