About Rules / Filters
Rules are a set of conditions and actions to be taken when the condition is met. This allows users to setup a workflow of sorts, which is almost infinite in it’s possibilities but here is a list of some common uses for setting up rules:
- Setting up automatic responses (aka auto-replies) for “Out of Office” notifications while on vacation or to automatically address a sender for any purpose
- Move certain incoming emails to a designated folder such as straight to Junk/Spam or to a folder named “Twitter Notifications”
- Copy an incoming email to another person automatically
- Redirect to another email address completely (i.e. forward all email)
- And many more uses for it!
Note: While often referred to as “rules” in webmail, the term “filters” can be used too. These terms and interchangeable, although the user interface tends to use “filters” as the overall collection of rules, noting that rules are what they use to describe the conditions for execution, so I will refer to it as such when necessary.
How to create a filter
- Login to webmail
- Click on Settings > Filters > Create
- Name the filter something descriptive (i.e. it’s purpose)
- Set the Scope (match any rules, all of the rules, or apply to all messages)
- Create the Rules on the filter
- These are the conditions in which the filter action will be triggered, such when a message arrives from a specific person/address, or during a certain date, when the body of a message contains a certain keyword, etc.
- Now set the Actions to be run/executed when the rules match (i.e. auto-reply, forward a copy of the message to another email, file the message away in a specified folder, etc.)
- Now Save the filter
How to delete a filter
- Login to webmail
- Click on Settings > Filters
- Select the Filter you want to delete
- Delete the filter using the Delete button
How to edit a filter
- Login to webmail
- Click on Settings > Filters
- Select the Filter you want to edit
- Make the changes necessary, then hit the Save button