To apply a rule to downloaded messages

New rules you create, whether for mail or news messages, will be applied to new, incoming messages. To apply rules to messages that have already been downloaded to your computer, you can do the following:

  1. On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click News or Mail, depending on whether you want to apply mail rules or news rules to downloaded messages.
  2. In the Message Rules dialog box, click the Apply Now button.
  3. Select the rules you want applied to messages that have already been downloaded, or click Select All to select all your current rules.
  4. Click the Browse button to select the folders or newsgroups you want to apply the selected rules to.
  5. Click the Apply Now button to apply the selected rules to the folders or newsgroups you designated.
Related Topics

Create a rule for mail messages

Create a rule for newsgroup messages

Change a rule