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Creating Message Rules in Outlook Express & Incredimail (click link to the left for Incredimail)

Message rules in Outlook Express or any other e-mail program allow you to filter your e-mail from spam/junk mail. Instead of seeing spam email messages in your Inbox, you can filter them to be moved automatically to your Deleted Items Folder or any other folder. You can also setup message rules that will send messages that have attachments (possibly virus infected) to a separate folder so you do not accidentally open them and infect your system. To create message rules, do the following:

From the menu click Tools > Message Rules > Mail (Click the thumbnails to see the entire image) From the Message Rules dialog box click the New button
New Mail Rule dialog box Under 1. Select Conditions for your rule: Place a checkmark in the box that says "Where the message body contains specific words" Under 2. Select Actions for your rule: Place a checkmark in "Move it to the specified folder". (Here you could also select "Delete It" instead of moving it to a folder, but I want to take you through the process of moving messages. This procedure is useful if you belong to mailing lists and you want your messages to automatically be moved to a folder for that mailing list.) Under 3. Rule Description (click on an underlined value to edit it): Click "contains specific words"
Type university diplomas and click Add then click OK (Here you could type any words that you see frequently in spam/junk email messages. Here are some examples: university diplomas, ink jet, sex, porn, xxx, viagra, long distance, judicial judgments, bulk email, we don't want to waste your time, 100% free, to be removed send an email, online casino, etc. You must create a New message rule for each of these phrases.) After clicking OK you will be returned to the New Mail Rule dialog box.
Under 3. Rule Description (click on an underlined value to edit it): Click "specified"
Select the Deleted Items folder and click OK (You can create other folders to move your messages. For example, I have a folder for attachments. I created a New Message Rule that the Condition is set to Where the message has an attachment and the Action is set to Move to a specific folder, in this case I used the attachments folder. This helps to prevent viruses on my system. It prevents me from accidentally opening any files that have attachments.) After clicking OK you will be returned to the New Mail Rule dialog box.
Under 4. Name of the rule: Type the name of the message rule (make this name something meaningful.) For this rule I would use university diplomas. Click OK

Congratulations! You have setup your first mail rule. For more information on fighting spam, read PCWorld's article on Spam Begone.

Next - Message Rules in Incredimail

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