Creating an "address book only" e-mail filter

During the show on January 3rd, Marty, Steve and I discussed setting up an e-mail filter to forward all e-mail that comes from people who aren't listed in your address book into a seperate folder (called "junk" or "spam" or whatever you want to call it.) This type of filter works great for people with personal e-mail accounts who only correspond with a known group of folks and don't expect any e-mail from someone they don't know. In business, it's different since many businesses get e-mail inquiries all the time from prospective customers. Although we discussed setting up this type of filter to redirect suspected spam messages away from your e-mail box, we didn't talk about how to do it, so....here's how to do it!

To set up a Message Rule in Outlook Express that forwards e-mail from people that aren't in your address book to a new folder, just follow these steps:

1. In OE, click on Tools>Message Rules>Mail


2. In the Select Conditions for your Rule box, check "Where the From line contains people"


3. In the Select Actions for your Rule box, check Move it to the specified folder


4. In Rule Description box, click on contains people


5. On the Select People window that opens, click on "Address Book" to open the Rule Addresses screen


6. Click the first name in the list on the left, then press the Ctrl+A keys to select the entire address book


7. Click "From" between the two boxes to copy the addresses in your Address Book to the new Message Rule


8. Click OK to return to the Select People window


9. Click Options to change the Rule Condition options


10. Choose "Message does not contain the people below" and click OK


11. Click OK in the Select People window


12. In the Rule Description box, click specified


13. Click Inbox under Local Folders


14. Click New Folder in the Move window


15. Type a name for the folder where you want the suspected spam to go and click OK


16. Type a name for your new Message Rule in the Name of the Rule box and click OK

Now, all the e-mail that you receive from people other than the ones listed in your Address Book will be forwarded to the new folder. Remember, when you add a new person to your address book, you will need to add their e-mail address to the Message Rule you created! A very good tutorial for setting up Message Rules is located on the Infostructure website. Check it out to see how to create other Message Rules and manage your e-mail inbox! If you have any questions you'd like to hear addressed on Rolla Mornings Live! drop me an e-mail!