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 e-mail account.

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 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 e-mail from outside your internal network.

  6. Specify the date when the rule will go into effect and the date 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 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.

    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, see Limiting Items Affected by a Rule.

  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 message for all forwarded items.

  10. Click OK.

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

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

9.4.5 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.

    To learn about what the fields represent, see 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 Operators in Advanced Finds and Rules.

  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 Section 7.3.4, Using Wildcard Characters and Switches in Advanced Finds and Rules.

  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.