Create and manage message rules in Outlook 2016 for Windows

Manage your messages using rules that automatically act on incoming or sent messages that meet conditions you specify. You can choose many conditions and actions by using the Rules Wizard.

Rules fall into one of two categories — organisation and notification. Rules do not operate on messages that have been read, only on those that are unread.

Instructions

Create a message rule

In these instructions we will create a message rule to move messages from a specific sender to a designated folder.

1.  Highlight the email message you want to set a message rule for and click on the Rules > Always Move Messages From: from the drop-down list.

Fig 1. Location of the Rules option
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2.  The Rules and Alerts window will now open for you to select your destination folder. Once you have selected your folder, click OK.

Fig 2. The Rules and Alerts folder selection window
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3. You have now successfully set up your message rule. All future messages will be moved to the specified destination folder.

Manage your message rules

1. To check and manage your message rules, click on Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts…

Fig 3. Location of the Rules option
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2. The Rules and Alerts window will open with a list of all your message rules. You can create, edit or delete existing rules from here.

Fig 4. Rules and Alerts management tab
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Related guides and other info:

• Add an attachment
• Add a signature
• Show/hide bcc field
• Send email in HTML or plain text
• Search for messages
• Recover deleted messages

Help and support

• Contact the IT Services.