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Use Email Filters to Organize Email

If you receive more than a few email per day, you could probably benefit from using email filters. All major email programs can be used to look at your email as it comes in and then shift it to a designated folder or even delete it.

Before starting to use a filter, set up some email folders to organize your messages. Simply having an Inbox that collects all incoming mail can be cumbersome to work with and makes it easy to lose important messages.

In my email program, I have set up over 25 folders that collect and organize everything from listener mail, newsletters, daily tips that I receive, mail from specific contacts and more. When I check for email, the program applies the rules (filters) that I have setup and shifts the mail to where it belongs.

And one of my favorite features of Microsoft Outlook is the ability to Right Click on an email and choose to add the message’s sender to my junk email list, thus preventing me from ever seeing a message from the offender again.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook Express, Click on Tools –> Message Rules –> Mail. Click on New, follow the three step rule process and then name your rule (filter). You can add as many rules as you like to your email.

If you use Netscape Communicator, Click on Edit –> Message Filters. Then click on New and set up the form to match the rule you want. Again, you can create as many filters as you want.

Microsoft Outlook uses a Rules Wizard in the Tools menu. I like the step-by-step approach it takes.

AOL users can set up simple rules in the Preferences section, but cannot achieve the power available in the above programs.

Keep visiting our web site for specific instructions on how to set up the filters exactly in each program.

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