Mail Rules
How do I create a mail rule to:
What version of First Class do I need to run Mail Rules?
You will need version 7.1 of the First Class Client. If you have a Mac and you are on the PDS campus, you can just go to "master copies" on the file server "Mac Server 1" and drag the folder "PDSnet 7.1" to your hard drive. If you have a PC or you are at home, click here to go to the FirstClass web site and download the software. After you download the software, get installation instructions
here.
To create a mail rule to file messages from a particular sender in a folder
Sometimes you may want to file messages from a particular sender or mailing list in a separate folder.
1. Open your mailbox.
2. Choose Collaborate...Rules. This will bring up your Mailbox Rules window. It should be empty except for a "Rules Log", unless you have already created other mail rules.
3. In the upper left corner of the Mail Rules window, click on the third icon from the left. This will create a new "Advanced Rule". A form will pop up like this:
4. In the "name:" blank, put a name for the rule. This would logically be the name of the sender, but can be anything you choose.
5. In the pull-down menu directly under the "If:", select "The Sender". In the second pull-down menu which appears, you can choose "matches" for an exact match, or "contains" if you want to just match part of the address.
6. On the lower half of the form, select "File in Folder" on the left and put the name of a folder in your mailbox
on the right. For instructions on how to create folders in your mailbox, click here. Note that you must create the folder in your mailbox before you create the mail rule.
7. Click the "Save" button and you have made the new rule! New mail coming in to your mailbox will automatically go to that folder if the address matches.
To create a mail rule to delete messages from a particular sender or with a particular subject
1. Open your mailbox.
2. Choose Collaborate...Rules. This will bring up your Mailbox Rules window. It should be empty except for a "Rules Log", unless you have already created other mail rules.
3. In the upper left corner of the Mail Rules window, click on the third icon from the left. This will create a new "Advanced Rule". A form will pop up like this:
4. In the "name:" blank, put a name for the rule. This would logically be the name of the sender or the subject to be filtered, but can be anything you choose.
5. In the pull-down menu directly under the "If:", select "The subject" or "The Sender". In the second pull-down menu which appears, you can choose "matches" for an exact match, or "contains" if you want to just match part of the address.
6. On the lower half of the form, select "Delete Silently" on the left.
7. Click the "Save" button and you have made the new rule! New mail coming in to your mailbox will automatically be deleted if the address matches.
To create a mail rule to delete messages with offensive words in the body
1. Open your mailbox.
2. Choose Collaborate...Rules. This will bring up your Mailbox Rules window. It should be empty except for a "Rules Log", unless you have already created other mail rules.
3. In the upper left corner of the Mail Rules window, click on the third icon from the left. This will create a new "Advanced Rule". A form will pop up like this:
4. In the "name:" blank, put a name for the rule. This would logically be "Block offensive words", but can be anything you choose.
5. In the pull-down menu directly to the right of the "If:", select "Any" instead of "All". This means that if any of the words match, the message will be deleted.
6. In the pull-down menu directly under the "If:", select "The Body"
7. In the second pull-down menu which appears, choose "contains" , and then the word you want to eliminate.
8. Click the button with the "+" on it to add as many more rules as you like.
9. On the lower half of the form, select "Delete Silently" on the left.
7. Click the "Save" button and you have made the new rule! New mail coming in to your mailbox will automatically be deleted if the body contains the offensive words you have chosen. Just make sure you don't choose a word which might occur innocently. You won't be able to get your deleted messages back.
To create a mail rule to forward messages from a conference to a person outside of PDS
Sometimes you may want to forward messages from a conference to an outside user.
1. Open your conference.
2. Choose Collaborate...Rules. This will bring up the Rules window for that conference. It should be empty except for a "Rules Log", unless you have already created other mail rules.
3. In the upper left corner of the Mail Rules window, click on the third icon from the left. This will create a new "Advanced Rule". A form will pop up like this:
4. In the "name:" blank, put a name for the rule. This would logically be the name of the person to receive the forwarded messages, but can be anything you choose.
5. In the pull-down menu directly under the "If:", select always.
6. On the lower half of the form, select "Forward" on the left and put the email address of the person you want to receive the messages on the right.
7. Click the "Save" button and you have made the new rule! New mail coming in to the conference will automatically be forwarded to that person.
8. Note that this will not forward existing mail from the conference. That can be done manually. If you change the "When" selection from "Message Received" to "Run Manually", existing messages will be forwarded when you highlight the desired messages and choose Message...Run Manual Rules. If you don't highlight the messages first, none will be forwarded. Ideally you would run the rule manually once for existing messages, and then set the rule to run on "Message Received" for all new messages.
