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Do you ever get tired of your Inbox filling up with daily reports sent by the same person? Or maybe a professional mailing list's messages have started taking up too much space in your Inbox?

Who has the time to read all these messages when they arrive? Wouldn't you rather have them moved — automatically — somewhere out of the way; somewhere they will be in one place, waiting for you to read them when you have time?

Well, this is just one occasion where rules (rule: One or more automatic actions taken on e-mail messages and meeting requests that meet certain conditions, along with any exceptions to those conditions. Rules are also referred to as filters.) can help. By using rules, you choose which messages go where.

If you regularly receive the same reports or messages from the same person, creating a rule is even easier, because you can base the rule on those messages. First you select an existing message that represents the messages that you want to move and start creating the rule based on that message. Outlook fills in the important criteria from that message for you. All you have to do is tell Outlook where to send the messages — into another folder where they will be available to you anytime, but no longer cluttering your Inbox.

Test drive rules and send those messages packing, practically all by themselves.

Move all specified messages to another folder

1. Right-click the message that you want to base the rule on, and then on the shortcut menu, click Create Rule.

   In the Create Rule dialog box, select the check boxes for the options that are already filled in with information from your selected message.

2. Select the Move e-mail to folder check box.
3. Click an existing folder or click New to create a new folder to store the messages.
4. To add more conditions, actions, or exceptions to the rule, click Advanced Options, and then follow the rest of the instructions in the Rules Wizard.

   Tip   To run the rule as soon as you create it, select the Run this rule now on the messages already in folder check box on the last page of the Rules Wizard.

   All the messages already in your Inbox (or whichever folder you chose) are moved to the other folder. To test your new rule, take a look at your new folder. Were the correct messages moved?

There are many other ways to use rules to reduce the load in your Inbox. Rules, with their variety of conditions, criteria, and actions, allow you a great deal of flexibility and choices in how and where you steer your messages. Learn more about using rules.