ARCHIVED: In Mac OS X Mail, how do I set up incoming mail filters?

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The Mac OS X Mail application will allow you to set up filters or rules that process or sort mail as you receive it. For example, you can filter mail from a certain sender into a folder with the sender's name. To set up a rule to filter your mail in Mac OS X Mail:

  1. From the Mail menu, choose Preferences....
  2. At the top of the window that opens, click Rules.
  3. Click Add Rule. To modify an existing rule, select it from the list, and then click Edit.
  4. A sheet will appear. If this is a new rule, give it a name in the "Description:" field. This can be anything you want.
  5. From the pull-down menu directly underneath the description, you can select to have any or all of the conditions be requirements for Mail to perform the action(s) you specify for this rule. Selecting any means that even if other conditions are not met, Mail will still perform the action; selecting all means that if the conditions are not all met, Mail will not perform the action.
  6. In the field just below the conditions statement, you can set the criteria you would like Mail to use in order to identify messages. The option you choose from the first menu on the left will determine what options are available in the rest of this section.

    To add more conditions, click the + (plus sign) to the right of the first condition.

  7. From the pull-down menu under "Perform the following actions:", select the action you wish to have Mail perform on each message it identifies using the criteria you selected above. The rest of the options available in this section will change depending on what you select from this first menu.

    To add more actions, click the + (plus sign) to the right of the first action.

  8. Click OK to save your rule.

This is document ajqg in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 13:14:50.