How to Use Thunderbird 3: Introduction to Filters
Filters can help you organize and manage your mail in Thunderbird. Filters enable to set actions that will be performed automatically on e-mail messages you send or receive based on criteria you set.
What Filters Can Do
You can create many different types of filters in Thunderbird. For example, you can create a filter to:
- Sort and organize your messages
- Discard or filter messages from unknown (or suspicious) e-mail addresses
- Move or copy messages containing certain words in the subject (or from a particular sender) to a specified folder
- Forward mail from a particular person to another person
- Flag messages for follow-up
- Assign a category (i.e., important) to your message
So you can set up Thunderbird to move messages from company Spam Inc. to your Junk or Trash folder. You can sort legitimate mail as well. Or you can have mail you receive from your manager or professor sent to a folder you designate, such as "Boss Mail" or "Prof Mail".
Setting up Criteria for Your Filter
When you set up a filter, you also set up the criteria, or conditions, on which Thunderbird will carry out your filter. Thunderbird will carry out the filter based on the conditions you've set up in your filter. For example, if you set up a filter where you want Thunderbird to move mail to a "jesuit mail" folder, you can set up a *condition* where a message must have the word "jesuit" in the subject before Thunderbird will move it to the "jesuit" folder.
A filter can have one or more conditions.
You can also add exceptions to your filter. For example, you can have a filter to move messages you receive from someone to a specific folder *except* if the message contains a specific word or phrase in the Subject line.
After you create your filter, Thunderbird will apply the filter for messages you send or receive.
Considerations When Using Filters
- Any filters you set up on one computer will not work on another computer unless you create the filter on that computer as well.
- Thunderbird filters only work on the computer where you created the filter. The filters will also not work if you access your e-mail with another mail client like Outlook 2007, Mac Mail, or other e-mail program.
- You must be logged in to Thunderbird (on the computer you created the filter) in order to run the filter.
- Filters will work only in Thunderbird; they will not work with Outlook, GUWebMail or other e-mail program.
- Make sure you do not create an e-mail loop, which could downgrade e-mail performance.
(In an e-mail loop, mail is forwarded back and forth between two different e-mail accounts. For example, Jane Hoya may set up her mail so that messages are forwared from her jhoya @ georgetown.edu account to her jane.hoya @ gmail.com account; she also has mail from her jane.hoya @ gmail.com account forwarded to her jhoya @ georgetown.edu account. So as one e-mail account receives the messages, it then fowards the messages to the other e-mail account, and vice versa. The messages are passed back and forth between each e-mail account, resulting in a "loop", with no final destination for the messages.)
