Outlook: Creating Rules to Manage Messages

Overview

Use rules to automatically organize your inbox with specific rules. For example, you can create rules that will change the importance of messages as they come in, automatically move them to other folders, delete them based on certain criteria, and more. 

Considerations

• These steps only apply to New Outlook & Outlook for Mac. They may differ lightly from other versions, for example, Outlook on the web, or classic Outlook. 

• Currently, new Outlook does not support rules for managing third-party accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud. 

Creating a rule (Windows)

There are two ways to create a rule for emails in Outlook, on a message, or from the settings.  

Creating a rule on a message (Windows)

1. Right-click an existing message and select Rules > Create Rule. 

1. 1. This allows you to make an automatic condition to move messages from the selected email sender to a folder.

   2. If this is what you want, click Select a folder, and choose which folder you want them to move to.

   3. If this is not the condition you want, select More options.
       
2. Classify the rule.
   1. Every rule needs at least three things: a name, a condition, and an action. Rules can also contain exceptions to conditions. You can add multiple conditions, actions, and exceptions at each step by choosing Add a condition, Add an action, and Add an exception. 

   2. In the Rules window, Name your rule.

   3. Select a Condition: Use this to select criteria for your rule. Use the down arrow to view and select the criteria you want to use. If the criteria have additional options, enter them in the window that appears.

   4. Select an action: Use this to select the action you want to take when a message arrives that meets the criteria you selected
      
      

3. More options for Rules:
   1. Add additional conditions or actions to a rule by selecting Add another condition.
   2. Add exceptions to a rule by selecting Add an exception.
      1. By default, the option to Stop processing more rules is enabled. With this option on, any new message that meets the criteria for more than one rule, only the first rule will be applied. Without this setting, all rules are applied that a message meets the criteria for. If you want only a specific rule to be applied, put that rule higher in the list than others, then edit the first rule to add the option to stop processing more rules. For more information, see Stop processing more rules in Outlook.
4. Press Save to create your rule or Discard to cancel rule creation. 
5. To use the rule right away, select the Run this rule now in inbox, which pops up after a rule is created. Else, select OK

Creating a rule from settings (Windows)

1. Select File > Settings > Mail > Rules > Add new rule. 
    
2. Repeat step 2 from “Creating a rule on a message (Windows)”.

Run inbox rules on existing messages (Windows)

By default, an inbox rule runs on incoming messages after you've created the rule. To run a rule on existing messages: 

1. At the top of the page, select Settings . 

2. Select Mail > Rules. 

4. Select  next to the rule you want to run. 

5. Select  Run rule now. 

Creating a rule (MacOS)

There are two versions of Outlook for Mac: Outlook for Mac and Legacy Outlook for Mac. This covers steps for creating a rule on Outlook for Mac, which is what most computers have. 

Creating a rule from settings (MacOS)

1. On the Outlook menu, select Settings. 
2. Under Email, select Rules. 
    
3. To create a new blank rule, select +Add new Rule.
    

4. In the Rules window, Name your rule. 

5. Select a Condition: Use this to select criteria for your rule. Use the down arrow to view and select the criteria you want to use. If the criteria have additional options, enter them in the window that appears. 

6. Select an action: Use this to select the action you want to take when a message arrives that meets the criteria you selected. 

7. More options for Rules: 

• • Add additional conditions or actions to a rule by selecting Add another condition. 

• • Add exceptions to a rule by selecting Add an exception. 

• • By default, the option to Stop processing more rules is enabled. With this option on, any new message that meets the criteria for more than one rule, only the first rule will be applied. Without this setting, all rules are applied that a message meets the criteria for. If you want only a specific rule to be applied, put that rule higher in the list than others, then edit the first rule to add the option to stop processing more rules.