Using filters to sort your email

Filters in General

Message filters look at the "To", "From", "Subject", or other parts of each email, and if they match certain content, they are placed into pre-assigned folders in your email program (you can even send them to the trash).

In the "Create filters" (or similar) portion of your email program, you'll create the criteria for each filter. An example for the NSTA chemistry list might be something like:
If "TO:" is "CHEMISTRY@NSTA.ORG" then move to the folder "NSTA-CHEM"

    Filters can be "...IS..." or "...CONTAINS..." The first
    requires an exact match, the second only a partial match.
    An example of use of the second would be yahoogroups lists,
    which add "[name of group]" to the subject line of each email,
    and you could filter on "contains [name of group]" for these.

You will need to create the folders you want to filter to, but I believe most programs will let you do this while you're creating filters. If you have an older version of your email program, you may have to create the folders before you create the filter.

Some programs (Thunderbird/Netscape, e.g.) allow you to "right click" ("click and hold" on a Mac) on the address in an email and create a filter directly from that point.

I hope these filters can help you be less annoyed by lists that receive a lot of email. I have my filters running, and when I'm too busy to read the lists I'm on, I just go to that box and "Select all" the "Delete"

Happy emailing!

Lee Amosslee
Carondelet High School Science Teacher
Owner, ShopInBerkeley.com

Email program instructions

Eudora

Eudora has great online help pages, including animated images showing you which 'pull down' windows to select:

Eudora Windows:
http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/win_filters.html
Eudora Mac:
http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/mac_filters.html
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Netscape / Thunderbird

[I use this program, so I know it best]

Easiest way is the "right click" on an email address in an email, then choose "Create filter from message..."

Or you can open the filter window from "Tools" "Message Filters" then click the "New" button.

In the "Filter Rules" window, the 'Name' of the filter doesn't matter, this is just for your information. The rest of the window should be pretty self explanatory:
    1. Create the criteria for the filter
    2. Select the folder you want to move the emails to.

Once you create the filter, you can test it by selecting it then clicking the 'Run Now' button. All the specified messages should be filtered retroactively.

For more help, open "Help", "Help and Support Center" then:
  Using Netscape Mail
    Organizing your messages
      Creating Message Filters

Further online support for Thunderbird filters can be found at:
http://opensourcearticles.com/articles/introduction_to_thunderbird_7
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Outlook Express

I haven't used Outlook in years, but the process is about the same. A page on their website for filtering newsgroups can be found at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;171233

I believe that the process for email is about the same:
Click the "Tools" menu
  Select "Email filters"
    Create your filter criteria
      Select the folder to be filtered to
    Your done!
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Online email access

If you are accessing your email by going to a web page using a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.), you can still probably filter your messages. Look for a "Settings" or "Options" button and then look for filtering options. You may need to create boxes before you start creating filters in these programs.
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