Using Contact's Categories to set message categories

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Guest

Is there any way to have a rule that sets an incoming message category to the
categor(ies) that the sender of the message is assign to in my contacts list?

In other words, I have 'George Washington' in my contacts list. George has a
category of 'prez' assigned to him. When I get a message from George, I'd
like that message to be assigned the category of 'prez' as well.

I know I can manually setup a rule to do this for specific contacts, but it
would be so much more useful to manage the rule's behavior by setting
categories in the contact list.
 
No. Here's as close as I can get you to that requirement:

Use folders to separate types of Contacts and then in Rules you can say if
the Sender is in a certain Address book (meaning Contacts Folder), then ...
do what you want.

BTW I hate suggesting folders rather than Categories but what you asked for
is best done by folder 'cause Rules don't recognise the Category of the
Sender.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant

There are various articles about using Outlook here: www.judygleeson.com
Canberra, Australia
 
Yes Judy I undersatnd the problem and the logic of your solution BUT it
creates another difficulty. I do not seem tobe able to 'filter' a contracts
folder into another sub folder address book that i can refer too with the
rules; all i seem to be able to do is to MOVE the contacts. Thats OK until
you do a search for contacts, then because they have been moved elsewhere the
incoming senders is no longer in the contacts folder....are you following or
have i rambled on and lost you?

Regards
ChrisiGiles
 
Step 1 make a subfolder in Contacts called "friends"
Step 2 drag all your Friends into that folder (select them by possibly
grouping By Category if you have them set up that way)
Step 3 set the new Contacts sub-folder to show as an Address Book - right
click it | properties | Outlook address book | tick the box to show as an
adress book (i'm not sure of the exact wording - but there's only one
checkbox).
Step 4 Make rules that say if the sender is in a certain address book
Friends, (meaning in fact a Contacts folder) then do ......

Does that clarifiy how to do it?

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant

There are various articles about using Outlook here: www.judygleeson.com
Canberra, Australia
 
Thanks Judy, I've done that but, I as see it, this MOVES the contacts to the
sub folder, which fits the rules well, BUT if you recieve a new e-mail which
fails the rules, so you check whether that sender is in the Contacts folder
it will always say NO because the seach ONLY looks at the top folder not the
subfolders. What I had hoped was that I could create a subfolder of contacts
that reflected a 'filtered' list of contacts from the main contacts folder.
This means the main folder is always complete for search mode and the sub
folder only 'holds' the filtered list. Obviously I am unable to make that
option work so I've either got to somehow automatically catagories by
incoming mail for the rule to work. (As per the orginal questioner); separate
out my Contacts into separate folders and loose the search option.
Never mind life is always a compromise?
 
which exact search option are you having problems with when you use
SubFolders?

Do you use the Contact Lookup window?

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant

There are various articles about using Outlook here: www.judygleeson.com
Canberra, Australia
 
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