Set up message rules on Outlook.com and automatically place new emails in the correct folders.
What are message rules?
Message rules help you keep your Outlook mailbox tidy. Message rules are literal rules that are applied to messages. These are settings that immediately put e-mails with certain characteristics in the desired folder. For example, emails from family members, with a specific subject or from a specific sender. A message rule also allows you to automatically mark emails as junk. This is useful if you get a lot of spam from the same sender.
Add new rule
Think in advance about what exactly you want to achieve with a rule. Then set one like this:
- Surf in the browser to www.outlook.com
- Log in with your email address and password.
- Click the gear icon at the top right.
- Click at the bottom View all Outlook settings.
- A new window opens. In the middle menu of the window, click Lines.
- click on Add new rule.
Now there are three steps: give the rule a name, choose which messages it concerns and finally decide what to do with it.
- Enter a clear name after ‘1’, for example ‘Mail from the children’.
- Click on the drop-down menu Select Condition.
- A menu with all kinds of options opens. For example, ‘Persons’ says ‘From’ and ‘To’. If you choose ‘From’, you have to add a sender and the mail from that person will be picked out from now on.
- Click on the desired option, and enter additional information, such as a keyword or a sender.
- click on Select action.
- A menu opens with all kinds of options. Here you choose what happens to the previously entered messages. For example, move it to a certain folder, delete a message immediately (be careful with this!) or mark it as read.
- Click the desired option and provide additional information, such as the folder where a message should be moved. If the desired folder does not yet exist, create it immediately in this menu.
- click on Save.
You return to the overview of the rules.
Click in the menu on Lines, you will see a summary of any other rules you have set. For example, if you also use your Outlook.com address in Microsoft Office, the message lines from that program may appear here. You can only see them, not edit them.
Delete message line
Want to delete a rule later because you don’t use it or it doesn’t work the way you want?
- Open the overview as mentioned.
- Click on the trash can next to the appropriate line.
- click on OK.
The rule disappears.