Ordering Rules

If you have Inbound Rules that might be applied to more than one e-mail message then you may need to consider in which order the rules are run. Similarly, Outbound Rules set to run at similar times may be dependent upon the results of each other, so again, you may need to consider in which order the rules are run.

The Rule Order button (available on both Inbound & Outbound Rules) provides the facility to set a specific order for your Inbound and Outbound Rules to be processed.

To change the order in which the rules are applied, select a Rule and, using the arrows to the right of the box move it up or down the list to determine what rule it will follow or precede. When the time comes to run your Rules, MailRules will start at the top of the list and work downwards.

• Inbound Rules - Auto Arrange Feature

The Auto Arrange button is ONLY available for Inbound Rules and will automatically arrange your Rules for you.

The ordering is based on the strength of the three criteria field with Sender being the strongest followed by Subject and Attachments. For example, a Rule with only Sender specified, will auto arrange higher than a Rule with only a Subject, because the message can only come from one person but any number of people could use the same subject line - for example anyone can send you an e-mail with a Subject of "HELLO!" but a message from your good friend Hugo Z. Hackenbush can only have come from the e-mail address hugo.z.hackenbush@grouchomarx.com.

Note: Although we talk about a single criteria, this does not preclude there being multiple Senders, Subjects or Attachments. Where multiple criteria are specified the same ranking hierarchy prevails.

A Rule with Sender specified, along with an Attachment, will auto arrange higher than a Rule with a Subject and an Attachment. A Rule with Sender and Subject will rank higher than a Rule with a Sender and an Attachment.

• How Wildcards are Auto-Arranged

If you are using wildcards in your Inbound Rules, you should be aware that the '?' wildcard is stronger than '*'. To illustrate how this is organised consider these examples of wildcards used for the Sender, in descending order of strength: