Outlook 2003 rules

[Aimee D Wood]

I'm running Outlook 2003, and the rules manager is behaving
strangely. Specifically "stop processing more rules" doesn't seem to be
doing what I expected.

It was my belief that, if I choose "stop processing", that only happens for
a message that matches the rule in question. However, what seems to be
happening is that, if I have "stop processing more rules" in a rule, no rule
after that ever gets executed.

I made a rule to just copy every rule to a folder, so I can test on all
incoming mail. With no "stop processing" in rules above the copy, I see the
copy. If I add "stop processing" to any rule above it, I don't get the copy.

Any idea why this "stop procesisng" doesn't behave as expected?

Thanks,
Aimee

 

[Brian Tillman]

I'm running Outlook 2003, and the rules manager is behaving
strangely. Specifically "stop processing more rules" doesn't seem to
be doing what I expected.

It was my belief that, if I choose "stop processing", that only
happens for a message that matches the rule in question. However,
what seems to be happening is that, if I have "stop processing more
rules" in a rule, no rule after that ever gets executed.

For that particular message, yes.

I made a rule to just copy every rule to a folder,

Do you mean "every message"?

so I can test on
all incoming mail. With no "stop processing" in rules above the copy,
I see the copy. If I add "stop processing" to any rule above it, I
don't get the copy.

Then perhaps a rule above it is matching on the message. Once a higher rule
acts and it contains "stop processing", then no subsequent rule will act on
that message.

 

[usenet]

For that particular message, yes.


Do you mean "every message"?


Then perhaps a rule above it is matching on the message. Once a higher rule
acts and it contains "stop processing", then no subsequent rule will act on
that message.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I meant the rule copies every message to a
folder,
so I could try lots of test cases and see whether the message got to
that
rule or not.

I've tried redoing order and all sorts of other things, and I'm pretty
sure
that the stop is working, even if the message doesn't match. That is, I
can
make my first rule:
"If with <specific words> in recipient's address, move to folder X and
stop
processing more rules".

Then the next rule is: "Move a copy of the message to folder Y"

And I see a message come in, which is not moved to folder X, but it is
also
not copied to folder Y. I've set it up to have only these 2 rules, and
I still
see this behavior.

What I'm starting to suspect, though, is that the behavior is dependent
on
the contents of the rule. I've been adding rules like my first above,
dependent
on words in recipient's address, because they allow me to filter things
I
receive as part of a mailing list. But, if I change the rule to check
another condition, like "with <specific words> in the subject", then
the stop
processing rules works as I expect: A message is either moved to X, or
copied
to Y, but not neither (or both).

I'm thinking that there's some bug with the words in recipient's
address check
that's somehow matching and letting "stop processing more rules" take
effect,
even if there is no actual match. I'm currently trying to modify my
rules so
I don't use any of the broken checks, which would allow me to work
around the
problem, although it's still annoying.

Thanks for your help; please let me know if you have any additional
advice
for me.
Aimee