Office XP Tips: Organize Outlook E-Mail

If you're like me, you probably get five pieces of spam for every legitimate e-mail message. The result is an electronic landfill staring you in the face each time you go to your in-box. As you sift through the detritus, you're faced with more unpleasantness: Some messages you want to save, some you might want to forward or print later, and some you just aren't sure what to do with. Help!

One way to keep things tidy is to take advantage of Outlook 2002's Mailbox Cleanup command, which I covered in a previous issue.

Another good way to keep your in-box tidy is to set up rules in Outlook for automatically filing messages according to the source, before you read them. For instance, suppose your HR department routinely sends out company e-mail regarding benefits, insurance procedures, company kickball games, and so on. Or say you get a lot of great jokes from your pal in Indianapolis every day. You don't need to read those messages immediately, but do you want to save them--somewhere besides your in-box--for a more convenient time.

Chances are, you've already created a system of folders for storing old e-mail. Outlook makes it easy to move messages from your in-box to your folders by simply clicking and dragging. But Outlook also lets you file those messages automatically, using the Organize Pane. The trick is to set up a "rule" that files messages from a particular address into a certain folder upon receipt. There are a lot of ways to use this trick, but for purposes of illustration, I'll show you how to tell Outlook to store all issues of this newsletter in a folder called "Office XP Newsletter." Before we begin, though, a caveat: The rules Outlook uses to automatically file messages won't work on HTTP e-mail like messages from Hotmail or MSN; you'll have to sort those manually.

Create the Folder

Before you can tell Outlook to stash away your messages for safekeeping, you first have to create a place to store them. To create a folder for this e-mail newsletter, make sure you've got a copy of the newsletter sitting in your in-box, then click the newsletter once to highlight it. Next, choose Tools, Organize to open the Organize Pane. You can also open the Organize Pane by going to the toolbar and clicking its icon, which shows a bunch of little yellow boxes tumbling happily into place.

Now, click New Folder in the title bar of the Organize Pane. In the Create New Folder dialog box, give your new folder the name "Office XP Newsletter." Because your new folder will contain e-mail, leave "Mail and Post Items" in the Folder Contains list. Next, select where you want to keep the folder. Unless you prefer a different hierarchy, you'll probably want to store it as a subfolder of your in-box. Click Inbox in the "Select where to place the folder" list and click OK.

Next, Outlook prompts you to add a shortcut to this folder in your Outlook Bar. If you'd like the shortcut there, click Yes; if not, click No. If you click Yes, Outlook will flash the My Shortcuts portion of the Outlook Bar to remind you the new folder is there. If you click No, you can view the contents of your new folder at any time by choosing View, Folder List and clicking the new folder.

Set Up the Rule

Now that you've created your new folder, you're ready to set up the rule that tells Outlook to automatically file messages there upon receipt. Go back to the Organize Pane and modify the second button item, which begins "Create a rule to move new messages..." Since your rule will affect new messages you receive from a certain address, leave "from" selected in the drop-down list. Because you highlighted a message from the recipient (in this case, moi) before you opened the Organize Pane, the return address is already filled in. Next, choose your new folder from the drop-down list after "into" (if it's not already there). At this point, if you've been playing along exactly as described, the entire statement should read as follows:

'Create a rule to move new messages from owner-OFFICEXP-HTML@listproc.pcworld.com into Office XP Newsletter.'

The address portion might be slightly different, depending upon which version of this newsletter you subscribe to.

Now click Create. Outlook prompts you with the following message: 'This rule will be applied to new messages as they are received. Would you like to run this rule on the current contents of this folder?' Click Yes if you want Outlook to file previously received messages; otherwise, click No. Finally, click the X in the upper-right corner of the Organize Pane to close it.

That's all there is to it. From now on, when you receive a message from the address you specified, Outlook will automatically file it in the proper folder. To read the message, choose the folder from the Outlook Bar or the Folder List and open the message as usual. It's not necessary to switch to the folder to see if you've received e-mail there. Outlook conveniently tells you a folder contains new messages by displaying the number of unread messages in parentheses after the folder name, like this: "Office XP Newsletter (1)."

The Ol' Switcheroo

Alas, all rules are meant to be broken. If you set a rule based on a sender's e-mail address (like we did above) and the sender changes their address, the rule stops working. In our example, if PCWorld.com ever changes the e-mail address for this newsletter, Outlook won't know to file away the message. Instead, it will once again appear in your in-box. Fortunately, the Organize Pane makes it easy to reestablish the rule. Just highlight the message with the new address and follow the steps outlined above. And just think--these instructions will be much easier to find, since you stowed this message away in its own folder. Right? Right!

The Tip of the Iceberg

As you might have guessed, this is just the tip of the e-mail handling iceberg. In future newsletters I'll look at some other great rules that Outlook offers. Stick with me and you'll have the cleanest in-box in town.

How Many Messages Are in Your In-Box?

Send me your current Inbox count (it's at the bottom-left corner of the Outlook screen) and any suggestions for tips.

Just Like Jello

Do you know someone with a messy in-box? Heck, there's always room for more e-mail. Please forward this newsletter and invite that slob to subscribe. Thanks!

Looking for back issues of this newsletter? Go to the Office XP Tips page.