Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

Creating Mail Rules
CHAPTER 11 MAIL, ADDRESS BOOK, AND iCAL 215
Mail rules can help you deal with large amounts of e-mail by automatically performing tasks on
individual messages that meet certain specified criteria. To view your rules, go to the Rules tab in
Mail’s preferences (Figure 11-8).
Figure 11-8. The Rules tab shows you your existing rules and allows you to edit them or create
new ones.
The Rules preference tab allows you to view your existing rules, activate or deactivate each
of them, and reorder them. There are also four buttons that allow you to create new rules (Add
Rule), edit an existing rule (Edit), create a copy of a rule as a starting point for a new rule (Duplicate),
or delete a rule (Remove).
The activated rules will be applied in the order they are listed on either each new message as
it arrives or on selected messages when the Message ➤ Apply Rules (Opt+Cmd+L) is applied.
The order of the rules is significant since the last-run rule will have precedence over previously
applied rules. Additionally, each rule has the option of preventing further rules from being executed.
To reorder your rules, simply drag them in the order in which you want them executed.
NOTE Rules are generally applied to mail in a certain folder, so if one of your rules happens to
move a message into a different folder, the following rules will not be processed for that
message.
To create a new rule, click the Add Rule button, and a sheet will open for you to begin creating
the rule (Figure 11-9).
Figure 11-9. The rule sheet allows you to fill in your rule’s criteria for new rules or allows you to edit
existing rules.