Get Started Lesson on using Rules: Let's say you have no custom rules created. You have a ton of mail in your Inbox and Junk folder.
Having an up to date Address Book is key to managing your mail and using rules. Assign a category to every entry in your Address Book. You can select using command-select to quickly add a lot of entries to one category. This might seem daunting but you'll be surprised at how quickly you can go through hundreds of contacts. If you don't have the time, you can do this as mail comes in from that contact. Note on categories: Try to keep them general. You'll find they can grow and grow and grow. You can create subcategories by using a naming scheme like this. (now they all sort together in the Address Book if I sort by category) Work: account A Work: account B Work: account C I do the same for groups. Group: Holiday Group: Announcements Group: Project A <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/category.html> Junk folder: If it's in your Junk folder and it's good mail, select "This is not junk" and add the entry to your Address Book. [IMPORTANT] It won't take long before you'll have all good addresses in your Address Book and your Junk Mail Filter will be easier to manage because it should just show junk. I have mine set to High. InBox: Quickly scan for messages that are from lists like this one. Create a Mailing List Manager rule for list messages. If you select a message to the Entourage talk list, then open the Mailing List Manager most of the info will already be entered. Once you have the MLM rule set, select all messages and run "All rules" from the contextual menu. Do this for all your mailing lists. You should be left with emails from individuals, newsletters, promotions etc. Select the first message in your InBox. Can this message be sorted by a category like Work, Buddy, Family, Announcements, Newsletters? If yes, then assign a category to the contact and set a rule. Use the shortcut Command-Option-C to open the contact. Assign category. Use the example below on how to set a rule by category. The criteria "Is not in a mailing list" is not necessary for all category rules but it never hurts if you add it. This way if I were in your Address Book for example, then emails I send to the list would go to the list folder, but a personal email I would send to you would go to another folder. My Buddy Rule: >From is in category Buddy Is not in a mailing list Move to folder Buddy Run AppleScript Play sound (I like to use this action so I can hear when I get mail from my buddies) <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/sounds.html> Look through other email in the Inbox and see if there are other emails there from Buddies. Assign categories to these contacts if you haven't already assigned in your Address Book and run "All Rules". This will move all buddy mail from your Inbox. Take the next message. Can you assign this to a category, or do you need a specialized rule? By using categories, you'll be surprised at how quickly, your Inbox will empty. One of the benefits of using categories even if an individual contact has a singular category assigned to it, is all addresses assigned to that contact will be acted on by that rule. You never have to add the new addresses to the rule, just to the contact. Some specialized rules you might want: Remove incoming attachments with one of the "remove attachment" scripts. They will save, remove and link the saved files to the message, so you can open the file directly from the message. <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/script/fav_scripts.html#favscript17> <http://scriptbuilders.net/files/saveattachments20041.0.0.html> Also remove your outgoing attachments with a rule. This is assuming your outgoing attachments are stored elsewhere on your computer. No need to have them duplicated and filling up your database. <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/example/rule001.html> I suggest that you create a rule for Junk Mail where "From is Me". This allows the Junk Mail Filter to catch the real spam where it appears the mail is from you and not mail you send yourself. I like the first example. I haven't met a spammer yet that uses Entourage for a sending client. Junk Mail where "From is Me" <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/example/rule012.html> If you need help with your rules, contact me off list. Hope this helps. -- Diane -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
