Using Filters to Sort Incoming Email

Each filter has one or more rules and a destination folder. When an email message satisfies the rules, the filter delivers the message into the destination folder. For example, the filter might say, "If a message has ’company picnic’ anywhere in the subject line, deliver the message to the ’Picnic’ folder." A message must satisfy all of the rules in a filter to be delivered to the destination.

Here’s How

1. In the upper-right corner of your Yahoo! Mail page, click the Options link, then select Mail Options from the menu.

   

   The Mail Options page opens.

2. On the left side of the page, click the Filters link.

   

3. On the top of the Filters page, click the Add Filter button.

   

   A page appears where you can define the rule and the destination for the new filter.

   

4. Type a unique name for the new filter in the Filter Name box, such as "From Mom" or "Company Picnic".

   

5. Define one or more rules for the filter.

   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.

   A rule has the following elements

   • The area of the message the filter should look into—Your choice here is one of the following:

     • From header—Who sent the message.
     • To/CC header—Who the message is addressed to.
     • Subject—The subject text.
     • Body—The message or body text.

   • Instructions on how the filter should handle the target text (the text you specify as the criteria)—The filter follows one of these instructions when looking into the area of the message specified above:

     • Contains—the area must contain the target text. For example, the target text "Chris" would match all the following: "School project on Christopher Columbus," "I forgot to call Chris," "chris9441@yahoo.com."
     • Does not contain—the area must not contain the target text. (This is a negative condition.) For example, the target text "Chris" would match any area that does not contain "Chris."
     • Begins with—the area must contain the target text at the beginning. 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 area must contain the target text at the end. For example, the target string "Chris" would match "I forgot to call Chris," but not "chris9441@yahoo.com" or "School project on Christopher Columbus."

   • The text the filter should look for—this is the target text that identifies the message as one you want Yahoo! Mail to automatically move to a certain folder.

   • The case-sensitivity of the match. Check the box in front of match case to indicate a case-sensitive match; otherwise the match is case-insensitive.

   This is the information the filter uses to compare against each incoming email message. In the following example, the filter will look for "mymom@yahoo.com" in Sender part of each incoming message. The text does not have to be an exact case match.

   

6. From the Move to Folder pull-down list, choose the destination folder where you want the message delivered.  

   

   If you want the filter to direct messages to a new folder, select [New Folder] from the pull-down menu. When Yahoo! Mail adds the new filter (that is, after you click the Save Changes button), it prompts you for a name and creates the new folder.

7. Click the Save Changes button to save the filter.

   

   The new filter appears in the list of filters on your Filters page and the total number of filters increases by one.

   

 

Take Me to Yahoo! Mail

Next:
Changing Filter Order

What’s Next

You can create up to 100 filters (200 if you’re a Yahoo! Mail Plus user). If you have more than one filter, you may need to specify the order in which Yahoo! Mail tries to apply your filters.