Message Filtering

Filtering is a way to automatically move certain messages from one folder to another or to delete messages, according to rules that you define. For each filtering rule you define, you will provide a Pattern to establish the messages you want filtered, and an Action, to control what to do with those messages.

Click to go to a screen where you can define a set of new filter rules.

Click next to a filter that you would like to change. You will go to an edit screen. You will only see this option if you have already created filters.

Click next to a filter rule you would like to remove. That filter will disappear. You will only see this option if you have already created filter rules.

When you have more than one filter defined, you will see the (shuffle up), and (shuffle down), options next to each filter. Use these to move your filters up or down in the list. The order is important. Your messages will be checked for filtering against the top filter first and, if the filter is set up for that message, it will be filtered. If no matching information is found, the message will be checked against the second filter and so on down the list. Messages that do not match any filter rules will be delivered to your Inbox.

Performance considerations:

- The more filters you have defined the longer it will take to run down the list. Deleting unused filters is a good idea.
- Filtering in newsgroups served by an NNTP server will be slow if your patterns include tests other than "From:" or "Subject:".
- Filtering a folder served by an IMAP server based on protocol versions prior to 4.