So, we looked at the main aspects of working with email: creating a message, sending and receiving, as well as replying, forwarding and setting email parameters. All this, without a doubt, allows you to organize your communication activities at a decent level. But the Outlook features discussed below allow you not only to organize this process, but also to optimize it, which makes Microsoft Outlook a leader among email software.

Rules Master is a special Outlook tool that helps you process email. Rules define actions that should be automatically performed for certain messages. The created rule is applied by Microsoft Outlook to incoming or outgoing messages.

Outlook Rules

Rules - it is a set of conditions, actions and exceptions for processing and ordering messages. Each rule consists of three elements: one or more conditions describing the messages to which the rule applies; one or more actions that specify the operations to be performed on messages that satisfy the conditions, and one or more exceptions that specify which messages the rule should not apply to. For example, you can automatically move all messages received from your manager (condition), except those messages that are of high importance (exception), to a separate folder (action).

Table 9.7 shows standard types of rules and their descriptions.

Type of rule	Description of the rule
Checking messages after receiving	Apply this rule when messages are received
Checking messages after sending	Apply this rule when messages are sent
Move new messages from someone	Apply this rule when messages are received from<отправители или список рассылки>move to folder<имя>
Notification when receiving important messages	Apply this rule when messages are received that are addressed to me and are of high importance. Notify me using notification<текст>
Move messages based on content	<текст>in the text or in the Subject field. Move to folder<имя>
Delete a discussion	Apply this rule when messages containing<текст>in the Subject field. Delete them
Flag messages from someone	Apply this rule when messages are received from senders or mailing lists. Set a mark for them<действие и срок>
Defining categories of sent messages	<получатель или список рассылки>. Put them in a category<имя>
Defining a category based on content	Apply this rule when messages containing<текст>in the text or in the Subject field. Put them in a category<имя>
Moving sent messages	Apply this rule when messages addressed to<получатель или список рассыл-ки>. Move a copy to a folder<имя>
Stop processing all of the following rules	Apply this rule when a message is received. Stop further processing of rules

Table 9.7. Standard types of rules and their descriptions

Create a rule

Let's look at how the Rules Wizard works using the following example. Let's say that you are an Internet subscriber and every day you receive messages from the subscription server (in my case, these are the news of the day from CityCat). The natural desire is to automatically move news to a folder specially created for it. But let’s say that in addition to news from CityCat, you also receive weather reports. Moreover, if the message (news) has an attachment, I would not want to place it in this folder.

Thus, you can set the following rule: "Move new messages to the folder CityCat provided that the sender is CityCat and the subject of the message contains the text "news", unless the message contains an attachment."

Example 9.31. Create a rule

> Service > Rules Wizard...

Create...

Create a rule based on a template

Type of rules Moving new messages from someone

Description of the rule

Name City Cat

Name:= <Имя папки>

Place in Inbox

<Текст>

Add new:=<текст>(Fig. 9.47)

Name of Rule:= <Имя правила>

Run this rule on messages that are already in the Inbox

After pressing the button Ready(Finish) the rule for folder items will be launched User Properties(Personal Folders). Now the rule is completely ready for use.

Working with rules

All created rules are in the list Apply the rules in the following order(Apply rules in the following order) dialog box Rules Master(Rules Wizard). You can create, change, rename and delete rules using the corresponding buttons.

If necessary, you can disable or enable the rules execution mode. To do this, uncheck or check the box next to the mode name.

If there is more than one rule, you can change the sequence of their execution using the buttons Up(Move Down) and Down(Move Up). In some cases, the order in which the rules are executed matters a lot.

Also, in addition to automatic, the Rule Wizard supports manual execution of created rules.

Example 9.32. "Manual" execution of rules

Execute...

Including subfolders

Apply to All messages

Execute

To conclude this section, I would like to provide a number of comments and tips for working with the Rules Wizard.

• Think very carefully about how you will structure your messages. It is important to clearly understand how Outlook works with the structure you choose. So, for example, you can create folders of the same type for each of your contacts, containing subfolders: Inbox(Inbox) - for messages received from a contact, and Sent(Sent Items) - for those sent to him.
• When creating a rule, think through its entire algorithm. Make sure that the rule does not overlap with others or contradict itself, so that later you do not look for a message where there is none. Sometimes in such cases the Rules Wizard issues a warning about incompatibility.
• If a message does not satisfy any of the rules, it is placed in the folder Inbox(Inbox)
• Don’t forget about another common means of structuring - Categories(Category). Create category rules for typical messages.

It happens that you constantly receive letters from a certain addressee in your MS Outlook email, and in order to have quick access to them, it would be advisable to move them to a separate folder and at the same time, so that all subsequent letters from this addressee are moved there automatically. This is where the Rules and Alerts feature comes to our rescue.

First, let's create a folder where letters from a specific recipient will be moved. To do this, right-click on the “Inbox” folder and select “Create folder” in the menu that opens.

Set the name of the created folder and click “OK”.

Here we have the folder we created

But the letters themselves will not be moved there; for this you need to configure a rule. In order to create a rule, right-click on any letter from the recipient for letters from whom we want to create a rule and select “Create rule” in the menu that opens.

In the window that opens, check the boxes as shown in the figure below

In the next window that opens, you need to select the folder we created. That is, we select the folder into which letters from a specific recipient will be moved. Click "OK".

The next message asks whether to execute our new rule for all letters in the current folder, that is, whether to move already received letters from a specific recipient to the folder we created. Put a check mark as in the figure below and click “OK”

OK it's all over Now. The rule has been created. Already received letters from a specific addressee are sorted into the folder we created and all subsequent letters from this addressee will also be automatically moved to this folder.

Use Inbox rules to automatically perform specific actions on messages that arrive in your Inbox.

For information about how to use Archive, Purge, and other tools, see Organize your inbox with Archive, Purge, and other tools in Outlook.com.

Create an Inbox Rule

Rules apply to incoming messages and can be created in any folder.

To quickly create a rule that moves all messages from a specific sender or set of senders to a folder, in the message list, right-click the message for which you want to create a rule and select Create a rule.

Select the folder where you want all messages from this sender or set of senders to move, and click OK.

Click the button OK.

If you want to do anything other than move a message from a specific sender or set of senders to a folder, select Extra options.

Every rule must have at least three elements: a name, a condition, and an action. Rules may also contain exceptions for conditions. At each stage, you can add multiple conditions, actions or exceptions using the buttons Add condition, Add action And Add exception.

If you do not want other rules to be processed after this, select the checkbox Stop further processing of rules. For more information, see Stop processing advanced rules in Outlook.com.

Change an inbox rule

Note: Some rules created in other versions of Outlook are not processed in Outlook.com. This rule cannot be executed or changed in Outlook.com.

Delete an Inbox rule

It's also useful to know...

You may have created a rule to forward or forward messages you receive to another email address. In this case, it is important to know the difference between redirection and redirection.

Forwarding involves sending an email you received to another recipient. If the recipient responds, their response will be sent to the address from which the above message was forwarded.

A forwarded message keeps the original sender in the From line. When the recipient to whom the message was forwarded responds, their response will go back to the original sender.

Have additional questions?

Business correspondence over the Internet has become commonplace these days. A lot of necessary and important information is transmitted through emails, documents are sent, and even deals are concluded. What should you do if your work is directly related to email, but for some reason (vacation, business trip) you will not be able to access your email account? Outlook allows you to keep in touch with recipients even at a distance.

How to make an automatic reply in Outlook: templates and rules

Outlook users have two options for automatic actions on incoming and outgoing messages: templates and rules.

Templates simplify the process of creating and sending messages, the text of which is often repeated, differing only in a few data (literally a couple of words or numbers). At their core, templates are stored messages into which new data is inserted immediately before sending.

Rules in Microsoft Outlook are actions that are automatically executed on messages, created based on an existing template or specified conditions.

Let's take a step-by-step look at the process of creating both templates and rules, as well as the existing differences for different versions of Outlook.

Create a template for Outlook 2003 and 2007 versions

It’s unlikely that anyone else uses these “dinosaurs” of the email world, but if you are lucky enough to have a workstation with just such software, then these instructions are for you.

Create a template for Outlook 2010–2016 versions

The algorithm of actions in later versions is much simplified, but at the same time new functionality has been added in the settings.

Create a rule for Outlook 2007 and 2003 versions

To create a rule in Outlook versions 2003 and 2007, do the following:

What are the differences in the settings for versions 2010, 2013, 2016

There is no fundamental difference in the settings. There are small improvements in the process.

Video: How to enable autoresponder in Outlook 2013

How to disable auto-reply

It’s even simpler here than when setting up the inclusion. In versions 2010–2016, the next time you log into Outlook with auto-replies enabled, you will see a warning (“Auto-replies are being sent for this account”). Click on the “Disable” button and all options will be disabled.

In 2007 and 2003 versions, you will need to go to the “Service” menu, to the “Deputy” item and select the “I am at work” sub-item.

Go to the Deputy service and turn off auto-reply

The Outlook email client makes working with email much easier. Without a doubt, an answering machine during vacation is an irreplaceable thing for a person whose work constantly involves correspondence. All that remains is to correctly configure the parameters of your personal “deputy” and go about your business with a clear conscience or just relax!