Sorting Sent Mail in Outlook 2003

[Guest]

Hi-
After hours of research, I have to wonder if it is actually the case that
the only ways to sort outgoing mail (by recipient) as it is sent are to:

1. Set a rule to COPY it, on sending, to a specific folder, resulting in
redundant copies of mail that you are trying to sort OUT of the Sent folder
remaing in the Sent folder, or

2. Unchecking the 'Save copies of sent items folder' in Tools|Option|Email
options, resulting in the loss of all sent mail for which you haven't set up
a 'move to folder' rule?

Of course, a few more items can be sorted by saving replies in the folder
with originals, but either way it seems like a huge hole in the rulles scheme.

I am trying to set up accounts for a client moving to Outlook from another
email program and the client wants outgoing mail appropriately sorted into
dozens of folders folders for her accounts.

I'm not that familiar with Outlook rules, but it seems bizarre that you
can't simply set up outgoing rules similar to incoming rules, i.e.,
individually, one at a time, as opposed to the blanket rules above. Am I
missing something here?

TIA

 

[Brian Tillman]

Hi-
After hours of research, I have to wonder if it is actually the case
that
the only ways to sort outgoing mail (by recipient) as it is sent are
to:

1. Set a rule to COPY it, on sending, to a specific folder, resulting
in redundant copies of mail that you are trying to sort OUT of the
Sent folder remaing in the Sent folder, or

2. Unchecking the 'Save copies of sent items folder' in
Tools|Option|Email options, resulting in the loss of all sent mail
for which you haven't set up a 'move to folder' rule?

No reason to lose mail. Just have a rule that moves everything to the Sent
Items folder that was not moved by the prior rules.

I'm not that familiar with Outlook rules, but it seems bizarre that
you
can't simply set up outgoing rules similar to incoming rules, i.e.,
individually, one at a time, as opposed to the blanket rules above.
Am I missing something here?

While rule processing for outgoing messages is not as rich as for incoming
messages, you can set up outgoing rules individually, one at a time. Why do
you think you can't?

 

[Guest]

Thanks Brian, but I am still unclear.

Let's say you are setting up a home office for someone; that person wants a
first mail sort by "Family" and "Work", moving it on sending into "Family"
and "Work" folders, respectively, and leaving all mail which doesn't meet
criteria for an existing Family/Work rule in the "Sent" folder for manual
sorting - and without leaving a copy of the sorted Family/Work mail in the
Sent folder. It's easy enough to do on incoming mail: just assign "Move"
rules based on distribution lists, words in sent field, etc., and the rest
just stays in the Inbox for a manual sort.

With Sent items, it seems you can copy the emails to "Family" and "Work"
folders, leaving an unnecessary copy in the "Sent" folder. If you turn off
saving copies, everything sent without rules to copy it to a specified folder
simply disappears into the ether. This scenario would seem to be ameliorated
by your suggestion to "Just have a rule that moves everything to the Sent
Items folder that was not moved by the prior rules." How do you do that using
this Family/Work/etc. example? I can't seem to wrap my head around how to
make a rule that would appear to mean, "If nothing else applies, do this."

Oh, and what I was referring to re setting up individual rules, one at a
time, was that is seems that you can't just do something like move all sent
mail to xyz to the 123 folder and just leave the rest in the "Sent" folder -
it seems like you actually have set up another rule, or parameter for the
rule, to get unnassigned mail into the Sent folder - which, clearly from the
above, I haven't figured out how to do.

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Brian,

There is NO facility to MOVE outgoing mail, you may MOVE
a copy (interesting way of putting it).

So Bill appears to be correct - he either accumulates copies in
Sent Items, or loses those he does not move.

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Bill,

There is NO facility to MOVE outgoing mail, you may MOVE
a copy (interesting way of putting it).

So you appear to be correct - the client either accumulates copies
in Sent Items, or loses those s/he does not move.

However, there is something that I have not tested:
IF the client, being consistent, uses Rules to sort INCOMING
mail, then you may be able to "piggyback" on that.

Tools>Options
Preferences (tab)
E-mail Options... (button)
Advanced E-mail Options... (button)
Save messages (section)
In folders other than Inbox, save replies with
original message
(CHECK)

 

[Brian Tillman]

With Sent items, it seems you can copy the emails to "Family" and
"Work" folders, leaving an unnecessary copy in the "Sent" folder. If
you turn off saving copies, everything sent without rules to copy it
to a specified folder simply disappears into the ether. This scenario
would seem to be ameliorated by your suggestion to "Just have a rule
that moves everything to the Sent Items folder that was not moved by
the prior rules." How do you do that using this Family/Work/etc.
example? I can't seem to wrap my head around how to make a rule that
would appear to mean, "If nothing else applies, do this."

Disable saving sent items in the Sent Item folder. Create your individual
rules for moving a copy, making sure you include the "stop processing more
rules" action on each. Then, create one more rule that moves a copy of
EVERY message to Sent Items, placing it last in your rules hierarchy. Since
you have "stop processing more rules" on the preceeding ones, this rule will
never execute until you send a message that doesn't match any of the
preceeding rules, making this last rule a "catch-all" for anything not moved
so far.

 

[Brian Tillman]

There is NO facility to MOVE outgoing mail, you may MOVE
a copy (interesting way of putting it).

So you appear to be correct - the client either accumulates copies
in Sent Items, or loses those s/he does not move.

And you appear to be incorrect, since I generally try what I suggest before
suggesting it.

 

[Guest]

And you appear to be incorrect, since I generally try what I suggest before
suggesting it.

Brian-

Using the example I gave in my most recent post above re the
Family/Work/Sent outgoing sort, can you tell me step-by-step how to do it?
that is, outgoing Family stuff to the Family folder, outgoing Work Stuff to
the Work folder, with only unduplicated, unsorted mail remaining in the sent
folder?

thanks

 

[Pat Garard]

If I am incorrect, then I sit corrected.

That you "generally try what I suggest before ..." has no relevance!

Unless...well...I suppose...perhaps you're being...Oh! You wouldn't!
Would you?

 

[Brian Tillman]

If I am incorrect, then I sit corrected.

That you "generally try what I suggest before ..." has no relevance!

Unless...well...I suppose...perhaps you're being...Oh! You wouldn't!
Would you?

Sorry, but I just don't understand this.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Using the example I gave in my most recent post above re the
Family/Work/Sent outgoing sort, can you tell me step-by-step how to
do it? that is, outgoing Family stuff to the Family folder, outgoing
Work Stuff to the Work folder, with only unduplicated, unsorted mail
remaining in the sent folder?

You appear to be able to create rules, since you said you already have rules
that sort the "Family" and "Work" messages (make sure they contain the "stop
processing more rules" action) and you already know that you need to disable
saving sent items in the Sent Items folder in order to not get duplicates.
All you need is the final rule I described in my prior message. To create
that rule, click the Rules and Alerts button (or click Tools>Rules and
Alerts). Click "New Rule", select "Start from a blank rule", then "Check
messages after sending", and click Next. Click Next again. You'll get
dialogue box containing "This rule will be applied to every message you
send. Is this correct?" Click Yes. Check "move a copy to the specified
folder" and then click "specified folder" in the lower pane. Select the
folder you wish, "Sent Items", perhaps. Click Next, then Next again.
Specify a rule name (or accept the default, which should be "Sent Items")
and click Finish.
You may get a pop-up that says "This is a client-only rule, and will process
only when Outlook is running." Click OK if you do. Now click the "move
down" arrow until your new rule is below your other rules. Click OK and
you're done. When you compose a message and it sends, if it doesn't get
moved by one of your prior rules, this last rule will catch it and move it
to the folder you chose. If it did get moved by one of the prior rules,
since you have "stop processing more rules" on that rule, this last rule
won't be executed so you'll have only one copy of each sent message in the
folder you desire.

 

[Guest]

Now you two stop that. Brian's most recent response clarified it for me. The
part I didn't get was that if you don't select anything in the preceding
selection box (and I couldn't find a fitting selection option), "You'll get
dialogue box containing 'This rule will be applied to every message you send.
Is this correct?'" pop-up comes up - and that seems to be the catch-all I
couldn't find.

I'm going to let it run for a few days and see how it's working come Monday
or Tuesday. A couple of tests seem to have worked

I appreciate both your efforts here and will report back next week.

Thanks.
Bill

 

[Guest]

OK, I thought it was working, but it seems that we're getting duplicates in
the "Sent" folder even after copies go to the "Family" or "Work" folders, and
even with "Stop processing more rules" checked. I'm now wondering if it has
to do with the order in which rules are processed, in that it's copying
outgoing messages to the "Sent" folder before it's processing the rules to
direct some messages to other folders and thus, "Stop processing more rules"
doesn't take effect until AFTER it's already copied to the "Sent" folder. Is
there a way to set a rule order to ensure that the one rule is processed
befor another?

I s'pose I could go in and add "Exception(s)" to the 'Copy to Sent rule,'
but that seems a LOT more work.

Why, oh why, isn't there a simple "Move to whatever folder and leave copies
of the rest in Sent folder on sending" rule?

Your continued help is greatly appreciated.
Bill

 

[Brian Tillman]

OK, I thought it was working, but it seems that we're getting
duplicates in the "Sent" folder even after copies go to the "Family"
or "Work" folders, and even with "Stop processing more rules"
checked. I'm now wondering if it has to do with the order in which
rules are processed,

The order of the rules is important. The rules with the "stop processing"
action must occur prior to the general catch-all that saves to "Sent". That
one must be last, as I previously stated.

 

[Guest]

The order of the rules is important. The rules with the "stop processing"
action must occur prior to the general catch-all that saves to "Sent". That
one must be last, as I previously stated.

OK, believe it or not, I didn't see the little blue up/down arrows and must
have looked at it about 50 times. Re-ordered and am trying again. sheesh.

thx
Bill

 

[Guest]

Been working for about a week now. Thanks!

Bill

OK, believe it or not, I didn't see the little blue up/down arrows and must
have looked at it about 50 times. Re-ordered and am trying again. sheesh.

thx
Bill

 

[Brian Tillman]

Been working for about a week now. Thanks!

Glad to hear it. You're welcome.