Outlook Rules Problem

[Remove ABCD from Email address to reply]

I am running XP Pro with Office 2003 Pro.

I have an Outlook rule which essentially says that if certain words are in
the subject and the sender is not in my address book, mark it as read and
move it to the deleted folder. The rule does not always work and I find it
in the junk folder as unread. If I manually run the rule then it moves the
appropriate emails to deleted folder and marks it as read. I have Outlook
junk setting at high.

I am guessing that Outlook junk setting it getting applied before my rule is
getting applied.

Does anyone know how to make sure my rules are applied? Or do I have a
different issue that I have not even thought of?

 

[Brian Tillman]

I am guessing that Outlook junk setting it getting applied before my
rule is getting applied.

This is a correct conclusion.

Does anyone know how to make sure my rules are applied? Or do I have
a different issue that I have not even thought of?

There's no way to adjust the order of the processing. The Junk filter gets
first crack at the messages.

 

[Remove ABCD from Email address to reply]

Thank you for the response. I am trying to figure out if I have any option
which might reduce this problem. If I were to the level of my junk setting
from high to low would this affect my rules, can I have a rule run upon
receipt for the junk mail folder or there is something called custom action
which I know nothing about.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Separately, I have a rule which works fine and there is exception which
states do not perform action if the sender is in my contact folder. I would
like to add an additional folder to the rule (from Business Contact Manager)
if that is possible but can not figure out if that is possible.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Thank you for the response. I am trying to figure out if I have any
option which might reduce this problem. If I were to the level of my
junk setting from high to low would this affect my rules,

Well, you could reduce the level of the junk filter processing and get more
messages to your Inbox, but this could lead to a higher level of junk in the
Inbox.

can I have a rule run upon receipt for the junk mail folder or there is
something called custom action which I know nothing about.

The only folder where rules will run automatically is the Inbox. Even if
you created one with a custom action, it would run only on the Inbox and
after the junk mail filter was done.

You could consider disabling the built-in junk filter altogether and use an
add-in like http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

 

[Remove ABCD from Email address to reply]

Brian,

Thanks again for a clear response. I will consider my options, but do you
have any advise on the issue below?

I have a rule which works fine and there is exception which
states do not perform action if the sender is in my contact folder. I would
like to add an additional folder to the rule (from Business Contact Manager)
if that is possible but can not figure out if that is possible.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have a rule which works fine and there is exception which
states do not perform action if the sender is in my contact folder. I
would like to add an additional folder to the rule (from Business
Contact Manager) if that is possible but can not figure out if that
is possible.

The exception is "except where sender is in the specified address book" and
the choices you get to make are from among those contacts folders you have
that are enabled as address books. Since the rule allows the selection of
only a single address book-enabled folder and since you're using an
exception and not a condition, I don't think you can accomplish what you
want; i.e., perform a specific action if the sender is in either address
book one or address book two. You're choices, as I see them, are to try to
use a condition instead of an exception, or to use a different exception,
sich as "except with specific words in the sender's address". If the sender
addresses are Internet addresses, the specific words can be their domains or
mailbox names (the part in front of the "@").

 

[Remove ABCD from Email address to reply]

Thanks for a complete response.

I do not believe that I can change the rule they way you suggest and
accomplish what I want. Essentially what I want to do is have any email
from someone not in any of 4 different contact folders (including a contact
folder in Business Contact Manager) would automatically go into my Junk
email folder.

I would guess that would leave me with trying to put together a Condition.
I am totally unfamiliar with condition and do not even know where I can find
it in Outlook, the help file did not bring anything up that made sense. I
would appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I do not believe that I can change the rule they way you suggest and
accomplish what I want. Essentially what I want to do is have any
email from someone not in any of 4 different contact folders
(including a contact folder in Business Contact Manager) would
automatically go into my Junk email folder.

OK, then, here's another approach. Create a rule for each of your four
contacts folders, each rule moving the message to the Inbox (or some other
folder, if you like) and then have one final rule with no condition whose
only action is to move the message to the Junk E-mail folder. You could add
the "mark as read" action on it as well, if you want.

I would guess that would leave me with trying to put together a
Condition. I am totally unfamiliar with condition and do not even
know where I can find it in Outlook, the help file did not bring
anything up that made sense. I would appreciate it if you could
point me in the right direction.

What you get to choose first in the Rules WIzard is the condition (like
"with specified words in the subject" or "through the specified account").
The second thing you get to choose is the action (like "move it to the
specified folder" or "delete it"), and the third thing you can choose is the
exception (which you already know about).

 

[Remove ABCD from Email address to reply]

Brian,

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give them a try