How do I create a filter?

Many of the e-mail management functions in Eudora can be done automatically with a filter. For example, you can automatically reply to requests for information, transfer all the messages from your children into a Personal mailbox, and label all the messages from your customers as "Hot."

A step-by-step tutorial how to use filters is available at http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/mac_filters.html.

There are two ways to create a filter. One is simple, and the other is detailed. A simple filter is created from an e-mail message in the Make Filter dialog. A detailed filter is created directly in the Filters dialog.

To create a simple filter, do the following:

1. Select the e-mail message from which you want a filter to be created.

2. Select Make Filter from the Special menu. Once the Make Filter dialog appears, check the fields to make certain the information is correct. If not, you can modify the information.

3. Click Create Filter to add this filter or click Add Details to display the Filters dialog to make this filter more detailed (see below).

To create a detailed filter, do the following:

1. Select Filters from the Window menu. The Filters window is displayed, and any filters you have are listed on the left.

2. Click on the New button, or select an existing filter. Filters are automatically named based on the criteria for the filter. They are invoked in order from top to bottom, and you can re-order them by dragging a filter up or down in the list. (If you are creating a new filter, "untitled" will change to what you enter in the Header field and appears after you close the Filter dialog.)

3. Select the options for how you want the filter to be used: You can set it as an automatic filter to be invoked on any Incoming and/or Outgoing messages, and as a Manual filter that can be invoked when you select the Filter Messages command from the Special menu. Any combination of the options works.

4. Define the criteria for the filter: Use the header item popups and the text fields to specify which header items should include a particular string of text. You can define two related terms for the criteria so that your filter is as specific as possible (for details, see the "Filter Criteria" section of the User Manual).

5. Define the action to be taken on messages that fit the criteria (for details, see the "Filter Actions" section of the User Manual).

6. Select Save from the File menu to save your changes to the filters. When the filters are invoked (automatically or manually), each message is matched against each filter, and messages that meet a filter's criteria are acted on as specified until a Transfer To or Skip Rest action is done. At that point, the next message is filtered.

7. To invoke your manual filters, select the messages you want filtered, then select Filter Messages from the Special menu.

Example: Creating a Detailed Filter

Let's assume you want all the e-mail from people at QUALCOMM to go into a mailbox named "qualcomm mail."

1. Select Filters from the Window menu (Special menu in older versions).

2. Click on the New button. An untitled filter is created.

3. Check the Incoming box.

4. Select From: from the Header popup.

5. Be sure the popup to the lower left says contains.

6. Type qualcomm.com in the text field below the header.

7. Select Transfer To from the first Action popup.

8. Select the qualcomm mail mailbox from the Transfer menu. If the mailbox doesn't already exist, select New... from the Transfer menu and make one.

9. Select Save from the File menu to save your filters.

Now any e-mail from people with qualcomm.com in the header your will transfer to you mailbox called qualcomm mail.

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KEYWORDS: EPMAC, FILTER, CREATE, FILTERS