Rules, part 3

[Martin]

Want to make a million bucks?

This is what is lacking in Outlook (among a many other things):

I want to be able to grab a message from the Inbox (or wherever) and drag it
into a folder. When that happens, a little window should pop-up and ask
"Would you like to create a rule for this message?". If the answer is "yes"
then you get to choose if you want a rule for:

- The sender (i.e.: (e-mail address removed))
- Anyone from that domain (i.e.: "@microsoft.com").
- The subject

You could also have an option to bypass the initial window and simply create
a rule automatically on drag-and-drop based on preselected criteria or some
intelligence. For example: If emails from the same person are dragged to
the same folder three times during a single week, a rule is automatically
created to sort that person's emails into that folder. If, on the other
hand, more than one person from that domain is dragged to the folder, than a
domain-wide rule can be created. By extension rule intelligence could
handle subject matter as well as look at the CC field for clues as to what
to do. There's also the possibility of creating timed rules that expire
based on hard durations (week, month, year) or simply by monitoring activity
or frequency of activation.

Surely there are a lot easier ways to handle and manage rule creation than
the stone-age approach taken by MS. Hello? Computers are running at
GIGA-Hertz rates, it'a about time they become a little more intelligent and
use that time to make our lives simpler rather than simply generating more
heat.

I've looked around and there does not seem to be anything out there that
enables even the most rudimentary version of this (a simple
rule-by-drag-and-drop). And, as far as I know, creating rules
programmatically is impossible, so I can't even contemplate writing my own.

The only thing I can think of is to write a program that subclasses all of
Outlook to listen in on all Windows messages. This would be tentative at
best. However, if it worked, you could possibly capture drag-and-drop (as
well as other) events and create your own rules pre-processor of sorts.
And, guess what, you could even consider things like, allowing friggin users
to backup and restore their rules or move them from machine to machine.
What a novel concept! :-(

-Martin

 

[Brian Tillman]

I want to be able to grab a message from the Inbox (or wherever) and
drag it into a folder. When that happens, a little window should
pop-up and ask "Would you like to create a rule for this message?".
If the answer is "yes" then you get to choose if you want a rule for:

- The sender (i.e.: (e-mail address removed))
- Anyone from that domain (i.e.: "@microsoft.com").
- The subject

Why doesn't right-click>Create Rule satisfy your requirement?

 

[Martin]

Why doesn't right-click>Create Rule satisfy your requirement?

Because it is too much work. Too involved. Unnecessarily complex for basic
rules.

Imagine having to go back to the days (if you are old enough) of using an
ASCII terminal program and a modem to access a text-based online service
(such as CompuServe used to be). You could get a lot done. USENET-style
newsgroups were available as "forums". However, it took work to get online,
learn and type text commands and generally manage information. We used text
editing programs such as Wordstar that required remembering complex key
sequences to get things done. Drag and drop is better. Point and click is
better. Automation is better.

Rule creation via the "Create Rule" mechanism has it's place, of course.
However, there is no reason not to make it significantly simpler by implying
rule creation by drag-and-drop. Let's say I start doing business with IBM.
I might want all incoming email from IBM to go to an "IBM" folder within my
"/Inbox/Vendors" folder. All I should have to do is drag and drop any email
I get from IBM to automatically create a "move to and stop processing rules"
rule, type the name of a new folder (if desired) and you are done. Compare
that to the steps you'd have to follow if using the "Create Rule" mechanism.
MUCH simpler.

I'll take it one step further. Since MS --and I couldn't, to save my life,
figure out why-- seems to refuse to provide easy backup/restore/copy/move
functionality for rules, you may have to rebuild your rules when you move or
update machines. I find myself doing a lot of this when I travel and move
my outlook store to my notebook. It would be significantly simpler to be
able to have rules created by inference (drag-and-drop) than to have to do
it by hand.

-Martin

 

[Brian Tillman]

Imagine having to go back to the days (if you are old enough) of
using an ASCII terminal program and a modem to access a text-based
online service (such as CompuServe used to be).

I'm older than that!

You could get a lot
done. USENET-style newsgroups were available as "forums". However,
it took work to get online, learn and type text commands and
generally manage information.

I classified it as "fun".

Rule creation via the "Create Rule" mechanism has it's place, of
course. However, there is no reason not to make it significantly
simpler by implying rule creation by drag-and-drop. Let's say I
start doing business with IBM. I might want all incoming email from
IBM to go to an "IBM" folder within my "/Inbox/Vendors" folder. All
I should have to do is drag and drop any email I get from IBM to
automatically create a "move to and stop processing rules" rule, type
the name of a new folder (if desired) and you are done. Compare that
to the steps you'd have to follow if using the "Create Rule"
mechanism. MUCH simpler.

And more fraught with "that's not what I meant it to do."

I'll take it one step further. Since MS --and I couldn't, to save my
life, figure out why-- seems to refuse to provide easy
backup/restore/copy/move functionality for rules, you may have to
rebuild your rules when you move or update machines.

I always found Rule Wizard's import and export fulfills that function quite
well.

 

[Martin]

And more fraught with "that's not what I meant it to do."

Not really. Obviously you'd want the ability to either turn it off, make it
less automatic or simply hit ESCape to dismiss the infered rule.

What I suggested was that this rule-by-drag-and-drop function monitor some
parameter for a trigger. Then, and only then, it would fire. You could
specify that if you drag the same name or domain to a folder three times in
a day/week/month/whatever you want to be asked if a rule should be infered.

It can be made very intelligent an non-intrusive. If MS writes it you can
be assured that it will be just about as annoying and intrusive as humanly
possible.

I always found Rule Wizard's import and export fulfills that function
quite well.

It doesn't work. Try moving 100 rules back and forth between a notebook and
desktop before and after a trip. Also, try doing this over the years and as
you migrate from one Outlook version to another. I started with '97, if I
remember correctly.

There are warts, like the, "on this machine only" problem, that require
either lots of manual editing or new rule creation to fix. Also, for some
strange reason, some of the rules fail to recognize folders within the store
and simply claim that the folder in question does not exist. This, when the
outlook message store file is a simple copy of the file from the desktop.
Exactly the same file. In other instances the rules simply turn themselves
off.

In general, I have not found a reliable means of maintaining my environment
exactly as it is on my desktop when I travel. For example, 2003 has no
ability to import and export email accounts. Instead it has a new --and
condescending-- interface for account management.

I suppose switching to Exchange might handle this, but, frankly, I'm pretty
tired of shoveling money into Microsoft's bank account for crappy software.

-Martin