Outlook email rules: More than one to a message?
I have been receiving messages with a particular recipient address and sending them to a particular folder. This works fine.
Then I wanted to *categorize* some of these same messages according to certain contents AND copy them to a different folder. This also seems to work fine. The messages were only categorized in the "different" folder and not in the other destination folder - according to the rules. So, I wanted to improve on that.
And, now I figure that categorization is enough and I want to send the categorized messages to the SAME folder as all the others.
This doesn't seem to work.
They go to the target folder but aren't categorized.
I have the categorization rule first and the moving the message rule directly thereafter.
(It appears that one cannot both categorize AND move a message in one rule).
Is it that only one rule can apply to a message.
I'm NOT using "and stop processing rules" in either of the rules mentioned above.
Then I wanted to *categorize* some of these same messages according to certain contents AND copy them to a different folder. This also seems to work fine. The messages were only categorized in the "different" folder and not in the other destination folder - according to the rules. So, I wanted to improve on that.
And, now I figure that categorization is enough and I want to send the categorized messages to the SAME folder as all the others.
This doesn't seem to work.
They go to the target folder but aren't categorized.
I have the categorization rule first and the moving the message rule directly thereafter.
(It appears that one cannot both categorize AND move a message in one rule).
Is it that only one rule can apply to a message.
I'm NOT using "and stop processing rules" in either of the rules mentioned above.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
To solve your problem create two rules in the following order:
1. sent to addressee X and with keyword in the body, assign it to the category and move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
2. no conditions, move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules, except if sent to addressee X.
1. sent to addressee X and with keyword in the body, assign it to the category and move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
2. no conditions, move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules, except if sent to addressee X.
ASKER
I will try to edit those suggestions. This seems more like what's needed.
1. sent to addressee X and with keyword in the body, assign it to the category and move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
2. sent to addressee X, move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
This seems to work as well as:
1. sent to addressee X and with keyword in the body, assign it to the category.
2. sent to addressee X, move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
In either case, I'm not sure why one would need to stop processing more rules after the last rule. But, in the latter case it seemed to matter. Otherwise, as I recall, the category was dropped.
1. sent to addressee X and with keyword in the body, assign it to the category and move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
2. sent to addressee X, move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
This seems to work as well as:
1. sent to addressee X and with keyword in the body, assign it to the category.
2. sent to addressee X, move it to the specified folder and stop processing more rules.
In either case, I'm not sure why one would need to stop processing more rules after the last rule. But, in the latter case it seemed to matter. Otherwise, as I recall, the category was dropped.
In your samples second rule is more general than the first one and this break your IF-THEN-ELSE algorithm.
ASKER
Hmmm..
The first one assigns it to a category. I agree that this is less general but that's all that it does .. selectively.
The second one moves *all* of them thereafter - which is what is needed.
It appears that you can't *move* a message and then act on it thereafter because it's no longer in the Inbox.
Isn't that right?
The first one assigns it to a category. I agree that this is less general but that's all that it does .. selectively.
The second one moves *all* of them thereafter - which is what is needed.
It appears that you can't *move* a message and then act on it thereafter because it's no longer in the Inbox.
Isn't that right?
ASKER
First of all, the rules to move certain messages to a certain folder were written some time ago.
Then I added rules to tag *some* of those messages with a Category, afterward.
Then I put these Category rules at the top of the stack of rules.
Only one of the cases did the messages show up categorized.
In that one case, the rule to move the message had "and stop processing more rules".
Since it's the last rule in the pair, that was fine with me!
So, I added it to the other message-moving rules and now it appears they all work.
Of course, this doesn't seem to make any sense because the Category rule comes first and there are no other (related) rules after the Move rule where the "stop" is added.
******
I don't see how one can do this with one rule:
Categorize if there is a word in the message and then Move *any* message with the same addressee whether it has been Categorized or not. It seems the first part of the rule will limit the following actions to those that have been identified for Categorization.
What's needed is an IF, THEN, ELSE structure like this:
IF the addressee is X
THEN
IF the keyword is in the body
THEN
Categorize the message.
Move the message
ENDIF
ELSE
Move the message
ENDIF
It could be made to work if there were a rule that would apply to a certain folder but I couldn't find such an item. Then the messages could be moved and then categorized in their destination folder. But I'm not sure how this would work with the ever-present "apply this rule after the message arrives". (Whatever that means). Obviously one cannot apply the rule *before* the message arrives. So, I take it that the rules are *only* applied in the designated Inbox and not anywhere else - and this is just a reminder.