Setting up Rules in Outlook 2007

You have the ability to manage your mail by using Rules to automatically filter your incoming messages.  After you create the Rules, they will be effective in both OWA (Outlook Web Access) and your Outlook 2007 client.

To display Rules in Outlook, when you're in Mail, select Tools--Rules and Alerts from the Menu.  This will display your current rules.  To create a new Rule, click New Rule.

To create a Rule to send SPAM mail to the Junk E-mail folder (although the general information applies to all rules you create), filter messages with particular information in the message headers (for more information on why this works, see this TechNews article:

  1. Click "check messages when they arrive"
  2. Click Next.
  3. Click "with specific words" in the messsage header
  4. Under Step 2, click "specific words"
  5. In the Search Text window, specify the words to filter on (in this case, you will enter Gauge=XXXX which will transfer any message flagged as 40% or greater probability of being spam into the Junk E.Mail folder.  NOTE: Messages sent within iastate.edu will not be scanned for spam.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Under "What do you want to do with the message?," click 'move to the specified folder.'
  10. Under Step 2, click on "specified"
  11. For "Choose a folder" select Junk E-mail
  12. Click OK
  13. Click Next
  14. Make sure "Turn on this rule" is checked.
  15. Review the rule description
  16. Click Finish.