UMKC Information Services →  Microsoft Outlook Client How To

You can setup Exchange server rules to automatically sort your inbound email.  These rules can run even when your email client is not running.  You will need to use Outlook 2000 on either your home computer, or in an IS Computer Lab to define your rules, but you can use any email client after your rules are defined.  You can also setup rules to sort messages that you send when using Outlook 2000, but this will not be covered here.  To setup a rule for sorting inbound email follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook 2000
2. Make sure your folders list view is opened (View -> Folder List), and create any folders that you will want your mail sorted into.
3. If you will be sorting any email based on email address, create a 'Contact' entry in your 'Contacts' folder for each email address you will be sorting by.
4. Go to Tools -> Rules Wizard
5. If prompted about whether to keep client or server rules, ALWAYS select server rules or you will lose existing rules.
6. Click New
7. Select 'Check messages when they arrive' to automatically sort inbound email, then click next. (For other types of rules you can consult the Outlook 2000 help system by clicking the '?' in the lower left-hand corner of the rules wizard.)
8. Select your rule criteria.  (i.e. what to look for in messages that you want moved.)  When setting rule selection criteria, always select email addresses from either your contacts list or from the global Exchange directory.  Click next once your criteria is selected.
9. Select what to do to messages that meet your selection criteria then click next.  Generally you will want to select the option for move to folder, but you may have a need to choose one of the other possible actions.  (Please note that some actions require Outlook 2000 to be running, so selecting anything other than moving, copying, deleting, or forwarding may make the rule unusable as an automatic server based rule.)
10. Select any 'exceptions' to you rule, if any.  Then click next.
11. Give your rule a name, and click Finish.