You've had enough of spam, I know. If you want a way to reduce the amount of it landing in your inbox, think [drum roll, puleeze] filters and rules.

If you need a refresher course on filters, read last week's installment, fittingly named "Block Spam With E-Mail Filters, Part 1."

This week I'll show you the latest on how to create rules in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Next week I'll discuss filters for America Online, Eudora, MSN Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail.

Design Your Own Filters (and Rules)

In "Four Fixes for the Most Annoying E-Mail," the title of my upcoming May magazine column called PC Annoyances, I talk about using a filter to dump messages with attachments directly into the Trash. You can do it with Outlook, Outlook Express, and Eudora. You can also filter virus-laden attachments. In most Web-based services, such as MSN Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, creating a special filter to deal with infected attachments is unnecessary as the services already have built-in virus catching features. With Eudora, you have to create the virus catcher yourself.

I think it's important for you to be able to use the instructions below as a guideline for creating rules and filters in the future. For instance, in Eudora I have filters to move messages from all my editors into a special folder (and you can do this in all the apps I mention). You're cynically thinking the Trash folder, right? Wrong, it's the "Oh No" folder.

Even better, in Eudora and Outlook 2003 I can assign a sound to the filter, alerting me to a message from a specific editor. That way if I'm busy in another application and Eudora checks for messages, the sound of a fog horn (a .wav file) alerts me that my boss probably has a pesky question to ask.

Unfortunately, Outlook Express is stingy in the rules department: You can't add sounds, but you can highlight a message with color. You're a bright bunch and I know you get the idea, so open your e-mail program and start experimenting.

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Outlook Express

In OE 5 and 6, select Tools, Message Rules, and then Mail. If you already have a rule, you'll see the Message Rules dialog box. Click the Mail tab, then click New and skip to the next paragraph. OTOH, if this is your first exposure to the exciting world of rules, OE will automatically display the New Mail Rule dialog box. Play along ... the fun is about to start.

Here's where you specify the conditions (when to implement the rule) and actions (what you want the rule to do). Select a condition--say, "Where the From line contains people." In the Rule Description field, you'll see the words "contains people" highlighted. Click that link and select the e-mail address of a person whose mail should be routed to a particular folder. You can type it in or click the Address Book button to select it from a list. My recommendation? Use the person's e-mail address rather than just a name as it makes it easier for the filter to get the right person.

Next, go back to the "Select the conditions for your rule" pane, scroll down its options list, and click "Where the message has an attachment." (You don't need to choose a person if you just want to filter messages with attachments; in that case, just click the "Where the message has an attachment" option.)

Now you're ready to choose an action in the second list pane, such as "Move it to the specified folder" if you want every message with an attachment in one spot. Now click "specified" in the Rule Description pane; OE displays a list of folders. Pick the folder you want the e-mail to go to. You can also create a new folder on the fly here by clicking the New Folder button. Alternatively, you can funnel the message into the Trash by selecting "Delete it" in the second pane (labeled "Select the Actions for your rule") instead of sending it to a specific folder. Click OK.

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The Last Few Steps in Outlook Express

There's one thing left to do in your new OE filter: Type a name for the rule in the last field. When you're done, click OK twice. Now e-mail from the specified person with an attachment (or just messages with attachments) will fly directly into its own folder, leaving your inbox untouched.

Want to get fancy? Sure you do; it's the nature of a computing geek. Experiment with highlighting specific messages with color or perhaps forwarding a message from your boss to your cell phone's address. Those options are all available in "Select the actions for your rule."

And here's another tip: You may want messages from a specific domain, say, the fictitious http://www.superdupersales.com, to be automatically sent to your Deleted folder. Select Tools, Message Rules, and choose Blocked Senders List. Click the Add button, enter the spammer's domain--superdupersales.com--and click OK. Take it a step further: Because I don't know anyone in South Korea (.kr) or China (.cn) who would send me e-mail, and lots of spam comes from those countries, I've added both countries to the Blocked Senders List.

But wait, there's more: The trick works with any e-mail program that lets you add domains or two-letter country codes to a blocking list or blacklist. (You can find a list of country codes at Norid.)

Now for Outlook 2003

No doubt, Outlook 2003 has the richest set of features for creating rules of all the programs we've looked at so far, and of those I'll mention next week.

Rules are easy to create using Outlook's wizard--and once you get the hang of it, they're just as easy to create manually.

Here's how to create a rule: Start at Tools, select Rules and Alerts, choose the E-Mail Rules tab, click the New Rule button, and you'll arrive at the Rules Wizard. The "Start creating a rule from a template" option at the top should be selected; if not, now's the time to do it. From here, you can use the wizard to create a simple, or even excruciatingly complex, rule.

For instance, you can play a sound when my newsletter arrives and move the newsletter to a specific folder. Start by selecting the "Play a sound when I get messages from someone" template in the top pane. In the second pane, "Step 2: Edit the rule description," click "a sound" and double-click a .wav file from the dialog box. (Stop worrying; it's not permanent. You can change it later.) Click Next, and you'll be faced with a box that lets you choose conditions.

In this case, you want the filter to use a specific set of words--Steve Bass--in the subject. So in the first pane, uncheck "from people or distribution list" and check "with specific words in the subject." Now in the second pane, click "specific words." In the Search Text dialog box that appears, type Steve Bass in the "Specify words or phrases to search for in the subject" field. Press Enter twice, or click Add and then OK. Back in the Rules Wizard, click Next and check "move it to the specified folder."

In the second pane ("Step 2: Edit the rule description"), click the word "specified." As with Outlook Express, Outlook will display a list of folders. Pick the folder you want the e-mail to go to. Click Next to skip the Rules Wizard's "Are there any exceptions?" page. "Steve Bass" should be in the "Step 1: Specific a name for this rule" field; if you don't like it, type in something else. Press Enter twice or click Finish and OK.

Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP are similar to 2003. You'll find a few changes in syntax, but nothing you won't be able to figure out.

For instance, here's how you duplicate the above "Quick Outlook Express Filter Tip" in Outlook 2000:

1. Select Tools, Rules Wizard, New, "Check messages when they arrive," and Next.
2. In the first pane, "Which conditions do you want to check," click the check box for "with specific words in the sender's address."
3. In the "Rule description" pane, click the blue, underlined link "specific words" and enter a country code such as ".kr" (without the quotes).
4. Choose Next, then select "move it to the specified folder."
5. In the "Rule description" pane, click the link "specified," select your Spam or Trash folder, and click OK and then Finish.

When you get spam bearing some other country's domain, Outlook 2000 lets you copy this rule and easily modify it for the new country code.

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In addition to writing PC World's Home Office column, Steve Bass is the author of "PC Annoyances." Sign up to have Steve Bass's Home Office Newsletter e-mailed to you each week. Comments or questions? Send Steve e-mail.