Sorting Messages Into Folders

Creating Filters Changing Filter Order Editing and Deleting Filters Additional Tips

Creating Filters

If you want messages automatically sorted into different folders as they arrive in your account, use att.net Mail’s filtering feature. Filters automatically sort your incoming messages according to rules that you set up. For example, you can create a filter so messages from your child’s school are automatically delivered to a personal folder called School. With filters, you don’t need to read through each message to decide where it goes and then move it there yourself.

Tip: You can also use disposable addresses to sort incoming mail into folders. Learn more about this option in the Using Disposable Addresses tutorial.

Each filter is a rule with one or more conditions and a destination (a folder) for the message if it meets the condition or conditions. A condition defines:

  • What part of the message the filter should scan—Your choice here is one of the following:
    • Sender—Who sent the message.
    • Recipient—Who the message is addressed to.
    • Subject—The subject line of the message is.
    • Email Body—The text of the message.
  • What text to look for (the target text)—The text string that identifies the message as one you want automatically moved to a particular folder.
  • How to match the target text (the matching criteria)—You can specify where the target string should appear in text that you’re trying to match. The choices here are:
    • Contains—The target text can appear anywhere in the text that you’re matching. For example, the target string "Chris" would match all the following text passages: "School project on Christopher Columbus," "I forgot to call Chris," "chris9441@yahoo.com."
    • Does not contain—The target text must not appear anywhere in the text that you’re matching. (This is a negative condition.) For example, the target string "Chris" would match any text passage that does not contain "Chris."
    • Begins with—The target text must appear at the beginning of the text that you’re matching. For example, the target string "Chris" would match "chris9441@yahoo.com," but not "School project on Christopher Columbus" or "I forgot to call Chris."
    • Ends with—The target text must appear at the end of the text that you’re matching. For example, the target string "Chris" would match "I forgot to call Chris," but not "chris9441@yahoo.com" or "School project on Christopher Columbus."

If the filter’s rule includes more than one condition, all conditions must be true for the rule to apply. Consider, for example, a filter with the following two conditions:

Sender ends with "@mycompany.com"
Subject contains "company picnic"

A message must be both from someone with an email address ending in @mycompany.com and must have the text company picnic in its subject to match the filter. A message that satisfies just one condition does not match the rule and is not filtered.

 

Here’s How

  1. Select Mail Options from the Options menu.

    Select Mail Options from the Options menu.

    The General options page appears.

  2. Select Filters on the left side of the page.

    Select Filters.

  3. Click the Add button.

    Click the Add button.

    A form appears on the right where you can define the rules and the destination for the new filter.

    The new filter form.Enlarge

  4. Type a unique name for the new filter in the Filter Name box.

    Give the filter a name.

  5. Define one or more conditions for the filter’s rule. For each condition, you must specify the following:

    • The matching criterion, such as "Contains" or "Ends with."

    • The target text, for example, "@rocketmail.com", "Love", "InfoBeat".

    • The case-sensitivity of the match. Check the box next to match case to indicate a case-sensitive match; otherwise the match is not case sensitive.

    Defining a filter’s rules.Enlarge

    Tip: Before writing your rules, take a look at the Additional Tips for Using Filters task. It provides guidance on the best ways to write your rules.

  6. From the pull-down list, choose the destination folder where you want the message delivered.  Learn more

    Choose the destination folder from the pull-down list.

    If you want the filter to direct messages to a new folder, select New Folder.

  7. To save your changes, close the Options tab, click another option link on the left, or add a new filter.

 

What’s Next

You can create up to 200 filters. If you use more than one filter, you may need to specify the order in which att.net Mail tries to apply your filters.

Note: There is currently no option in att.net Mail to filter messages once they’re already in your Inbox.

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Words to Know

  • Case-sensitive: lower and uppercase letters are not treated the same; for example, a is not the same as A.
  • Condition: the part of a filter that defines what constitutes a matching message.
  • Disposable email address: a customized email address that you create to protect your regular att.net Mail address.
  • Filter: a rule that att.net Mail uses to direct an incoming message to a particular folder.
  • Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in att.net Mail.

Popups

Learn more about creating and using folders here.