9.4 Creating a Rule

Rules can help you sort your messages, inform others that you’re on vacation, or forward your messages to another email account.

If you create a rule in Online mode, the rule is created in Caching mode only at the scheduled interval described in Automatically Downloading Address Books to Your Mailbox, or manually by clicking Tools > Rules > Refresh while in Caching mode.

9.4.1 Creating a Basic Rule

  1. Click Tools > Rules, then click New.

    New Rule dialog box

  2. Type a name in the Rule name field.

  3. Click the When event is pop-up list, then click an event to trigger the rule.

  4. If you clicked New Item, Startup, Exit, or User Activated, click one or more sources for the item. For example, click Received and Posted.

    or

    If you clicked Filed Item, Open Folder, or Close Folder, click the folder icon, click a folder, then click OK to display the folder name.

  5. Click one or more types of items you want the rule to act on in the Item Types list.

    If you want to further restrict the items affected by the rule, click Define Conditions, click the appropriate options, then click OK. For more information about the options that you can choose from, see Section 7.3.2, Selecting Fields in Advanced Finds and Rules.

  6. Click Add Action, then click the action you want the rule to perform.

    Some actions such as Move to Folder and Reply require you to fill in additional information.

  7. Click Save.

For a rule to function, it must be enabled. See Enabling or Disabling a Rule.

9.4.2 Creating a Vacation Rule or Auto Reply

When you create and activate a vacation rule, GroupWise blocks out your calendar with All Day Events for the dates that you specify, showing you with Out of Office status.

  1. Click Tools > Vacation Rule.

  2. Select Activate my vacation rule.

    For your vacation rule to truly be active, you must select this option and specify a date range. Because the vacation rule is active only within the date range that you specify, leaving this option always selected does not mean that your vacation rule is always active. Your vacation rule expires after the last day in the date range that you specify.

    If you deselect this option before the rule has expired, the All Day Events are deleted from your calendar.

  3. Type a subject for the automatic reply.

    Subjects appear in parentheses after the original message subject in the reply. For example, if the subject was “Out of Office reply” and the message “Budget monitoring” was sent to you, the Auto Reply feature returns the subject “Re: Budget monitoring (Out of Office reply).”

  4. Type the message that you want to appear in the automatic reply.

  5. Select whether you want to reply to emails from outside your internal network.

  6. Specify the dates when the rule will go into effect and when it will end.

  7. Click Save.

Rules that trigger a reply (such as this vacation rule) keep a record of who a reply has been sent to, and make sure that a reply is sent only once to that user.

9.4.3 Creating a Rule to Forward All Mail to Another Account

  1. Click Tools > Rules, then click New.

  2. Type a name in the Rule name field, such as Forward Rule.

  3. Click the When event is pop-up list, then click New Item.

  4. Next to And items are, select Received. Make sure no other item source is selected.

  5. Select Mail under Item types.

  6. Click Add Action, then select Forward.

  7. Type the address that you want the items forwarded to in the To field.

  8. Type a subject you want to use for forwarded items, for example Fwd:.

  9. (Optional) Type a name of a filter to use for forwarded items.

  10. (Optional) Type a message for all forwarded items.

  11. Click OK.

  12. Click Save, verify that the rule has a check mark next to it indicating that it is enabled, then click Close.

9.4.4 Creating a Rule that Sends a New Email

  1. Click Tools > Rules, then click New.

  2. Click Add Action, then select Send Mail.

  3. In the New Mail Item form, fill in any relevant fields.

    You must at least specify a recipient for the new email.

  4. Click OK.

9.4.5 Copying a Rule to Make a New Rule

  1. Click Tools > Rules.

  2. Click the rule you want to copy, then click Copy.

  3. Type the name of the new rule.

  4. Make changes to the rule.

  5. Click Save.

9.4.6 Limiting Items Affected by a Rule

Use Define Conditions to further limit the items affected by a rule.

  1. In the Rules dialog box, click Define Conditions.

  2. Click the first drop-down list, then click a field.

    For more information about the options that you can choose from, see Section 7.3.2, Selecting Fields in Advanced Finds and Rules.

  3. Click the operator drop-down list, then click an operator.

    To learn how to use operators, see Using Advanced Find.

  4. Type the criteria for the rule.

    or

    If a drop-down list is provided, click the drop-down list, then click existing criteria.

    If you type criteria, such as a person’s name or a subject, you can include wildcard characters such as an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?). Text you type is not case-sensitive.

    To learn more about wildcard characters and switches, see Finding Items Anywhere in Your Mailbox.

  5. Click the last drop-down list, then click End.

    or

    Click the last drop-down list, then click And or Or to further limit the items affected by the rule.