Outlook 2007: Use Rules to Add Categories to New and Old Emails

Home -> Windows -> Office -> Outlook

From the computer of: seamonkey420 (131 recipes)
Created: Jan 26, 2007     Updated: Jan 29, 2007

Add to:

i've just recently started to use categories in my Outlook 2007 (mainly because of using a blackberry at work) however going back through 11 years worth of emails would take months to flag manually and doing it manually each send/receive is still too much work. Lets make a rule in outlook to do this for us!

1. In Outlook 2007, go to Tools > Rules and Alerts

You'll should get a Rules and Alerts window



2. Click on the New Rule button.


3. On the Rules Wizard window, go to the bottom under Start from a blank rule, and click on Check messages when they arrive.



Click Next

4. Now on the Step 1: Select condition(s) screen, check the "with specific wrods in the subject" and then click on "specific words" in blue in the Step 2 window.



This will popup a new window to add phrases/words that may be found in the subject line to help add a category to. In my example, i will create a rule that would handle eBay and Paypal and other online purchases i make. Type in the words/phrases and hit the add button to add them. here's an example of some i would use.

Receipt for Your Payment
You Won eBay
eBay Bid Confirmed
Order
Invoice
etc




Click OK when your done. You will be back at the rule window. Click the Next button to move to the action part.



5. Check the "assign it to the category category" option. Then in the Step 2 window, click on the blue category. This will pop up the Categories screen. You can create a new one and assign it a color. You can also assign multiple categories to the rule too. Click OK when done and Next on the Rules wizard window. You will get to the exceptions screen. Add an exception if you like, if not click Next.

6. Next, name the rule and select the option to turn the rules on and also to run it in your current folder if you want to. Then click OK. If you chose to run the rule it will run and you can check your results.



7. Also be sure to uncheck the "Clear categories on mail" rule or move it above the rule we just made (to clear categories that may have been attached to it).

If you have more than one mail folder, you may want to run the rule on any other folders to add the category to ones that meet the criteria.

Voila! Now you can finally filter those emails on your BB or Goodlink ready device. Gotta love filter especially when your mailbox has over 4200 emails. I should really archive again. :)

TIPS:
-you can add exceptions to rules, the wizard will ask you if you want to add exceptions after the initial rule and action is setup.
-i believe the rules are ran in the order in which they show in the Rules and Alerts screen. You can move rules by click on them, and using the blue up and down arrows. Top = first, Bottom = last.