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Filters can be highly customized and we cannot cover all their possible permutations. These instructions will take you through setting up some fairly common filters (filtering by sender and by subject) and should give you an overview of the process.
This filter will look for mail sent from the NetID "andersow" that have the word "aardvark" in the subject. It will move these messages to a folder called "Important Mail." |
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- Start Thunderbird, click on Tools (at the top of the screen), then click on Message Filters...
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- This will bring up the Message Filters window.
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- Click on the New button.
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- This will bring up the Filter Rules window.
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- Next to Filter name, type a unique name for the rule. Choose something that will be
distinguishable from any other rules you create. |
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Conditions are the things that our filter looks for. The simple filter we're creating here will have two conditions (i.e., "look for mail sent from andersow" and "look for mail that has aardvark in the subject"). More complex rules can have several conditions (for example, "look for messages sent from andersow that have the word aardvark in the subject line and include davisc in the CC list and have a high priority").
- If your rule will have more than one condition, you must choose:
- Do you want the rule to take action if any of the conditions are present, or
- Do you want the rule to apply only when all the conditions are present.
We want our rule to take effect only when all the conditions are met. (We don't want to filter all the messages sent from andersow, just the ones about aardvarks.) So, we click on Match all of the following. |
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- Select what your filter will look at. (In this case, our filter will look for mail that has the word "aardvark" in the subject, so we will select Subject.)
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- Then, type in the text that the filter will look for. (In this case, our filter will look for "aardvark", so we type aardvark in the box beside contains.)
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- We want our filter have more than just one condition, so we click on the plus sign button. This will add another row of condition buttons for us. (This time, instead choosing subject, we click on From and type andersow in the box beside contains.)
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- Next, decide what you want your filter to do: the filter can delete messages; move them to a specified folder; flag them; or do several other things. Click on the action you want (a checkmark will appear beside it). In our case, we choose move the messages to another folder.
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- Moving to the right, click on the down arrow, then click on the either @georgetown or Local Folders (depending on where the folder is stored). Then click on the folder you want from the list that pops up. (In this case, our filter will move the aardvark messages to an "Important Mail" folder.)
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- When you have set your rule up the way you want it, click on the OK button.
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