To find mail messages in your message folders

1. On the Edit menu, point to Find, and then click Message.
2. Enter criteria in the search fields.

Tip

• Outlook Express searches the currently selected folder by default. To search in another folder, click Browse, and then select the folder.

Managing mail messages with rules

When you have large volumes of incoming e-mail, Outlook Express can help you process it more efficiently. You can use rules in Outlook Express to automatically sort incoming messages into different folders, highlight certain messages in color, automatically reply to or forward certain messages, and much more.

The following topics provide more information:

To create a rule for mail messages

1. On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click Mail.

Message rules cannot be created for IMAP or HTTP mail accounts.

2. On the Mail Rules tab, click New.
3. Select the conditions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Conditions section. (You must select at least one condition.)

You can specify multiple conditions for a single rule by clicking more than one check box. Click the and hyperlink in the Rule Description section to specify whether all of the rule conditions must be met before the specified action occurs (and) or whether at least one must be met (or).

4. Select the actions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Actions section. (You must select at least one condition.)
5. Click the underlined hyperlinks in the Rule Description section to specify the conditions or actions for your rule.

You can click contains people or contains specific words in the Rule Description section to specify the people or words you'd like Outlook Express to look for in messages. If you enter multiple people or multiple words per condition, use the Options button in the Select People or Type Specific Words dialog boxes to further customize the condition.

6. In the Name of the rule box, select the default name, type a new name for your rule, and then click OK.

Notes

• You can create a new rule by selecting an existing one on the Message Rules tab and clicking Copy. This is helpful when the new rule you want to create is similar to an existing one.
• You can create a rule from a message by selecting a mail message in the main window and then on the Message menu clicking Create Rule from Message. This helps by automatically filling in the name of the person on the From line; no other information from the message, however, is entered into the rule.

1. On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click Mail or News, depending on the type of rule you want to change.
2. Select the rule you want to change, and click Modify.
3. Make your changes in the Edit Rule dialog box, including renaming the rule, and click OK.

To apply a rule to downloaded messages

New rules you create, whether for mail or news messages, will be applied to new, incoming messages. To apply rules to messages that have already been downloaded to your computer, you can do the following:

1. On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click News or Mail, depending on whether you want to apply mail rules or news rules to downloaded messages.
2. In the Message Rules dialog box, click the Apply Now button.
3. Select the rules you want applied to messages that have already been downloaded, or click Select All to select all your current rules.
4. Click the Browse button to select the folders or newsgroups you want to apply the selected rules to.
5. Click the Apply Now button to apply the selected rules to the folders or newsgroups you designated.

To add, delete, or switch folders

• To add a folder, click the File menu, point to Folder, and then click New. In the Folder name text box, type the name, and then select the location for the new folder.

• To delete a folder, click the folder in the Folders list. Then click the File menu, point to Folder, and click Delete.

• To switch to another folder, click the folder in the Folders list.

Note

• You cannot delete or rename the Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, or Drafts folders.

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