How to Organize E-mail Messages

Oh, no! 12,000 messages in your In Box? By organizing your e-mail into separate mailboxes or folders, you can easily find messages again when you want them. Simple, eh?

These instructions should work for most e-mail programs.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computers
• E-mail Software

Sorting Messages Within Mailboxes

1. To organize the messages in a mailbox or folder by categories, such as Status, Size, Date, Subject, Sender or Priority, first open the mailbox you want to sort.

2. You should see different columns at the top of the mailbox or folder. Click a column to sort the messages by that category.

3. The messages automatically sort themselves.

Creating Mailboxes

4. Create mailboxes (also called folders or in boxes) according to categories of e-mail messages. You might want to create additional mailboxes for Work, My Club, Private, Template and so on.

5. To create the mailboxes, use the New command from the File menu, or possibly from the Mailbox menu, depending in your e-mail program.

6. Transfer your e-mail messages into the appropriate mailboxes and folders.

Tips & Warnings

• Higher end e-mail software, such as Microsoft Outlook and Eudora Pro, will allow you to create filters to automatically sort your e-mail. See "How to Set Up E-mail Filters."