Your e-mail client can reduce the amount of workyou have to do when new messages arrive by processing some of them foryou. E-mail programs like Mail and Entourage let you create rules that lookfor certain characteristics in incoming e-mail and then take an action-such as moving it to a certain mailbox, deleting it, or sending out a canned reply-when a message matches the criteria. Although rules can't deal with all your incoming messages, they can go a long way toward keepingyourinboxfree for personal correspondence and helpingyou identify especially important messages. Rules consist of two parts: the first is the condition, which is the attribute the rule looks for, and the other is the action, which is what the rule does if a message matches the condition. Rules can have multiple conditions and actions to create complex interactions. To create a new rule in Mail, choose Mail: Preferences, click on the Rules button, and then click on Add Rule. In Entourage, choose Tools: Rules, click on the New button (or, in Entourage 2004, the tiny arrow just to the right of the New button), and then choose the account type for which you're creatinga rule from the pop-up menu. Then, no matter which program you're using, fill in a name for the rule, select one or more conditions and actions, and click on OK.
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