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• Create a Filter

Create a Filter

Creating a Filter from the Mail Filters Tab

Email filtering allows you to define rules to manage incoming email. Filtering applies a set of rules to incoming email and then executes a specified action. You can filter your incoming email messages to:

• Sort them into folders
• Automatically tag them
• Forward them
• Discard them

You can create a filter in two ways. You can create a filter using the Preferences tab and then choosing the Mail Filters tab, or you can start with a message in the Inbox and then right-click* and choose New Filter.

Create a Filter from the Mail Filters Tab

1. Click the Preferences tab.
2. Click the Mail Filters tab and click New Filter. The Add Filter dialog box displays.
3. In Filter Name, type the name for the rule.
4. In the If the following conditions are met area, choose a grouping preference.
   • Any means that if any of the conditions in the filter are met, apply the action
   • All means that all of the conditions in the filter must be met to apply the filter action.

   The following steps can be repeated to set up multiple conditions and actions within a single filter.

5. Click the first drop-down list and select which condition to use.
6. Click the second drop-down list (a comparison method) and select the condition to use. The options shown on the second drop-down list depend on your choice in the previous drop-down list.
7. Enter a word or phrase to compare against in the text field.
8. Click the plus button (+) to add more conditions. You can continue to add more conditions or proceed to the next part, which is to add one or more actions.
9. In the Perform the following actions area, choose an action from the drop-down list.
10. Specify a folder or tag name, if necessary. What you specify depends on the action you choose.
11. Click the plus button (+) to add more actions. You can continue to add more actions or click OK to finish.
12. Check the Active box to turn on the filter rule. The filter will be applied automatically to all new incoming mail messages as they arrive.
13. Check Do not process additional filters, if this is the only filter to be run on messages that meet the conditions of this filter. The Do not process additional filters action should be the last action within each filter rule. This prevents the application of any additional filter rules to email messages that match the current rule.

    If it is not specified, subsequent filter rules are evaluated for the mail message, even if the current filter is a match. You probably do not want to have the same message match more than one filter rule and undergo multiple, perhaps contradictory actions.

14. Click OK to finish.

Create a Filter from an Email Message

1. Right-click (Ctrl+click on a Mac) a message in your email mailbox.
2. Click New Filter. The Edit Filter dialog displays with a From, To, and Subject set with the email message information.
3. If the filter conditions are correct, enter a name in the Filter Name field and click OK.

You can change the conditions and actions as necessary using the drop down menus in the Edit Filter dialog.

For more detailed information on "conditions" and "comparisons", click on the Help link at the top right corner of your Stanford Email screen. Then click Creating Filters from the Zimbra contents menu.