Outlook provides you with a bunch of pre-existing rule templates, as shown in Figure F.

FIGURE F

You could create a rule from a template, but you're tougher than that! Click picture for a larger image.

Templates are for wimps. You're going to learn how to create a rule from scratch. Tap the radio button that says "Start from a blank rule", make sure "Check messages when they arrive" is highlighted, and click the Next button, as shown in Figure G.

FIGURE G

Real men (and women) start from blank rules. Click picture for a larger image.

Now, you're ready to define your rule.

Determining the conditions under which the rule will fire
This rule will run when you get email from your boss. So you'll want to set the condition "From people or distribution list", as shown in Figure H.

FIGURE H

Fire when it's from that special someone. Click picture for a larger image.

Check off the "From people or distribution list" option, and you'll see it shows up in the bottom pane of the rules editor, as shown in Figure I.

FIGURE I

Check off that option. Click picture for a larger image.

To specify the email comes from your boss, move your mouse over the "people or distribution list" hyperlink in the lower pane, and click, as shown in Figure J.

FIGURE J

Click the hyperlink. Click picture for a larger image.

At this point, you're ready to enter in your boss' email address. You'll see the Rule Address dialog, and down at the bottom, type in your boss' email address, as shown in Figure K.

FIGURE K

Enter that email address. Click picture for a larger image.

You could choose an address from your address book, but I prefer to type in the actual email address down in the bottom. I've also blurred out those people listed in my address book, 'cause they just don't need to be gettin' email from everyone who reads OutlookPower. See? I'm considerate!

Once you press OK, you should see a change in the Step 2 pane, as shown in Figure L.

FIGURE L

The rule now knows your boss' email address. Click picture for a larger image.

As you can see, the item no longer says "from people or distribution list" and instead says "from boss@mycompany.com", which is exactly what you want.

Click Next and we'll move on to the actions phase of the rule editor.

Specifying what happens when the conditions are met
This next phase is fun. This is when you get to decide what'll happen automagically once the rule's conditions are met. So, once the email message is determined to be from "boss@mycompany.com", what do we want to do?

In our case, we want to file it in an appropriate folder. You can see this option in Figure M. By the way, notice that since we've yet to check off "move it to the specified folder", there's nothing in the bottom pane about what happens to the email message.

FIGURE M

We're going to move the message to a folder. Click picture for a larger image.

OK, so let's check it off. As you can see, "move it to the specified folder" has appeared in the lower pane, as shown in Figure N.

FIGURE N

Check off the move option. Click picture for a larger image.

To tell the rule which folder to use, we'll need to click the "specified" hyperlink, as shown in Figure O.

FIGURE O

Click "specified". Click picture for a larger image.