Automatically sorting e-mail in Outlook

Sorting your e-mail messages into different folders provides overview and helps you keep track of messages.

You can sort your messages in two ways:

1. Filtering at the server (filers created in webmail - OWA):

By creating e-mail filters in webmail (OWA), the messages are filtered on the mail server before they are brought into Outlook. This is more convenient because sorting is independent of the program you use to read / send email.The messages are sorted in the same way regardless of whether you read e-mail via the webmail service, Outlook, home computer or on mobile devices.

If you want e-mail filtering in this way - on the e-mail server - log into webmail (OWA) and set up your filters there. 

It is important that you do not edit your filters from both Outlook and webmail. You must therefore decide whether you want local filters that filters e-mail only on one computer / device at a time, or you want filters that filter already on the email server and provide equal sorting on all devices.

See instructions for filtering and sorting e-mail messages in webmail (OWA).

2.  Local filtering (filters in Outlook)

If you find it most convenient to have local filters that filters e-mail only on one computer / device at a time, follow the instructions below:

Creating filters in Outlook

Select the email you want to create a filter for, and then go to the Rules → Create Rule ...
Opprett en regel for et filter i Outlook

In the window that pops up, you register what you want Outlook to filter for and what you want to be done with the messages captured by the filter. It is recommended to filter mostly on From and / or Subject contains:

Opprett et filter i Outlook

You can choose what Outlook should do when an e-mail is captured by the filter, such as display a notice on the screen, play a sound and / or move messages to a specific folder.

Sett mappe for filter i Outlook

If you do not have an appropriate folder for the filter, press the New ... button to create a folder. Confirm the folder by pressing the OK button.

Advanced filters in Outlook

Select Advanced Options ... in the Create Rule window and the window Rules Wizard opens. In this example we have brought with us the choices we made above:

Outlook: Avansert oppsett av filtre - Select condition(s)

As you can see from the screen, you have far more options under advanced setup of filters. After making the desired selections for which e-mails to be captured, press Next.

In this example, we first set that Outlook should stop processing more rules and that all e-mail the filter has captured should be moved to a specified folder. We press Next again.

In the third Rules Wizard window, you can specify whether the filter should apply to all e-mails that are captured by the filter, or if there are some exceptions:

Definere unntak fra filteret i Outlook

Eventually you will be asked to provide a name for the rule. Most often, the name of the rule coincide with the name of the person / company you're filtering on:

Avslutt avansert filteroppsett med å gi filteret et passende navn

Activate the options Run this rule now on messages already in "Inbox" and "Turn on this rule". Then press Finish.

Did you find what you were looking for?
Search the user manual
Published Jan. 29, 2014 1:55 PM - Last modified June 20, 2022 12:41 PM