Here's a more practical example from that big rules application article I wrote a few weeks ago. When we get an email message in that says "OUTLOOKPOWER ANSWER TEAM" in the subject, I want to take a series of actions on it, including sending out a reply, filing it, and forwarding it. But, if the message is a reply (usually from someone I forwarded the message to in the first place), I don't want to do all that processing.

So, rather than always triggering the rule, I added an exception that checks for "Re: OUTLOOKPOWER ANSWER TEAM" in the subject. If the "Re:", it's pretty clearly a reply, so we don't want to run the rule.

Exceptions are very important, especially as you build more and more complex rules.

Thinking like a rule
Outlook rules are incredibly capable, but they're also sometimes finicky. One of the most common complaints I hear about Outlook is that it lost some message or another. Almost always, Outlook didn't lose the message, but rather a too-broad rule put the message someplace unexpected.

This is why, when you create a rule, you need to think like a rule. When you specify a phrase to compare against, for example, in the subject or body of the message, ask yourself if it can possibly misinterpreted.

For example, let's assume your ex-girlfriend's name is "Jane Dolittle". If you set up your rule to trash every message from "Jane", you might wind up missing an important request for proposal from Jane Dickens.

In the beginning, try out one or two simple rules, and when you have them running, check the folder where you're filing the messages those rules process. From time-to-time, make sure the rules didn't grab stuff that shouldn't be there.

We'll talk more about rules in future weeks and months. But this should get you started with some of the basics. Have fun!

Diane Poremsky is the president of CDOLive LLC and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She's author of Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours (Sam's, 2003) and coauthor of OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide). For questions or suggestions for future columns, write her at outlook@cdolive.com.