Notes stores the mail rules you create in the Rules folder in your mail database. You can go there to add new rules as well as work on the ones you've created. For example, you can edit rules, change their order so that one rule has priority over another, turn them off when you don't want to use them, or delete them entirely. Click any of these topics:

• To create a rule
• To manage rules
• Examples: Mail rules

1. Open your mail database and in the navigation pane, click Tools and then Rules.

3. Under "Specify Conditions," select a part of messages to check (such as "sender" or "subject"), select a state (such as "contains" or "is"), and enter the criteria to check for (such as the name of a certain person or a certain word). Don't use quotation marks for the criteria you enter.

For example, you could select "sender" and "contains," and then enter Alice to filter all messages sent to you by Alice French, Alice Stearns, and anyone else named Alice. Or you could select "Size (in bytes)" and "is greater than," and then enter 2000 to filter all messages sent to you that are greater than 2000 bytes.

Note The "contains" condition works on partial words, and is not case sensitive. For example, you could select "sender" and "contains," and then enter Al or al to filter all messages sent to you by anyone named Al, Alice, Alex, or Alicia. Don't quote entries in the "contains" or "is" field, or you may see an error message.

Tip The "all documents" condition, new in Lotus Notes 6, lets you perform an action on all messages that arrive in your mail while the rule is enabled. For example, you might select "all documents" and specify sending a copy to me@myself.com while you are out of the office.

5. Do any of the following:

	What do you want to do?	Procedure
	Add more conditions	Select Condition, select "AND" or "OR," and repeat Steps 3 and 4 for each new condition.
	Add an exception	Select Exception and repeat Steps 3 and 4.
	Add more exceptions	Select Exception, select "AND" or "OR," and repeat Steps 3 and 4 for each new exception.
	Remove a condition or exception	Click it in the "When mail messages arrive" box and click Remove.
	Remove all conditions and exceptions	Click "Remove All."

6. Under "Specify Actions," select "move to folder," "copy to folder," "set expire date," "change importance to," "delete," or "send copy to."

7. Do one of the following:

• If you selected "move to folder" or "copy to folder," click Select and select a folder.
• If you selected "change importance to," select an importance level.
• If you selected "set expire date," enter a number and select days, weeks, months, or years.
• If you selected "send copy to," select whether you want the forwarded copies to contain the full message, or the message headers only. The headers are the subject, the addresses, and the date and time at the beginning of the message; they don't include the rich-text content of the message. Then enter the recipient(s)' address(es), separated by commas, or click Address to select addresses from an address book.
Note If you find that a rule using the "send copy to" action is not working, ask your administrator whether this feature has been disabled for your organization.

9. Do any of the following:

	What do you want to do?	Procedure
	Add more actions	Repeat Steps 6 through 8 for each new action.
	Remove an action	Click it in the "Perform the following actions" box and then click Remove.
	Remove all actions	Click "Remove All."

10. Click OK. The rule is enabled (On) by default. You can disable it until you're ready to run it.

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To manage rules

What do you want to do?	Procedure
Enable or disable a rule	In the navigation pane, click Tools and then Rules, and highlight one or more rules. From the menu, choose Actions - Enable or Actions - Disable. Tip You can also click the check mark icon next to any rule to enable or disable it.
Edit a rule	In the navigation pane, click Tools and then Rules, and click the rule you want to edit. Choose Actions - Edit. Make your changes and click OK.
Move a rule	In the navigation pane, click Tools and then Rules, and click the rule you want to move. Choose Actions - Move Up or Actions - Move Down until the rule is where you want it. Note Notes uses rules in the order in which they appear from top to bottom, so you can move the rules you want to have priority closer to the top. This way, if a new message you receive meets the criteria of two different rules, the rule that's closer to the top acts on the message first. (This is particularly important if you have rules that move or delete messages.)
Delete a rule	In the navigation pane, click Tools and then Rules, and do one of the following: To delete one rule, click the rule. To delete more than one rule, click in the column to the left of each rule to select it. Choose Actions - Delete. Select Yes when Notes asks if you want to delete documents.

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Examples: Mail rules

The following rule automatically changes the importance of all messages from Tom Jenkins to high (which means Notes shows them with an exclamation point in the Inbox to catch your attention).

The following rule automatically moves all messages that have the word "status" in the subject from the Inbox to the Status Reports folder unless (an exception) the subject also has the word "sales" or "project" in the subject.

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See Also

Mail and Address Book
Sorting mail in a folder or view
Automating Tasks Using Simple Agents
Notes mail rules on the Lotus Developer Domain
Why do I get a Notes formula error message when I try to create a mail rule?
Why won't my mail rule run?
Specifying a schedule for client-based archiving