Filtering E-Mail from the Eudora Help file:

Quick and Simple Filters with the Make Filter Dialog

The simplest filters are those that transfer incoming messages to a particular mailbox based on the sender of the message or one or more of the recipients. For example, each time you check your mail, you may want to have Eudora take all of the incoming messages it receives from your friend Joe and automatically transfer them into a mailbox you've called "Mail from Joe." To get Eudora to do this, you set up a simple filter. For new users, the Make Filter dialog box provides an easy way to learn how to use filters. Once you get comfortable with the simple filters created this way, you can go on to make more complex, powerful filters using the Filters window. Experienced users will find that the Make Filter dialog box provides a rapid, convenient method for making a simple transfer filter.

To open the Make Filter dialog box and create a simple filter, do the following:

1. Open an incoming or outgoing message containing the information you want in your filter, or select one or more message summaries in a mailbox.

2. From the Special menu, choose Make Filter. Or, right-click in the body of the open message, or in the selection of message summaries, or in the preview window for a single-selected message, and choose Make Filter from the drop-down menu. The Make Filter dialog box appears with the selected message criteria already entered.

Match Conditions

The Match Conditions area of the dialog box helps you set up the criteria that will determine whether or not a particular message will get acted on by this filter. The two match conditions reflect type and content. You can specify that the type of messages you are interested in should be Incoming and/or Outgoing. You can also specify that this should be a Manual filter (described below). You can check and uncheck any combination of the three boxes Incoming, Outgoing, and Manual.

Note: If the messages you selected when you chose Make Filter were in any mailbox other than your Out mailbox, the Incoming and Manual checkboxes are checked automatically. If the messages you selected were in your Out mailbox, the Outgoing and Manual checkboxes are checked automatically.

. Incoming - If this box is checked, then any incoming message that satisfies the content match condition you specify will be acted on according to the action you've specified in this filter.
. Outgoing - If this box is checked, then any outgoing message that satisfies the content match condition you specify will be acted on according to the action you've specified in this filter.
. Manual - If this box is checked, then, when you select one or more message summaries in a mailbox window and choose Filter Messages from the Special menu, the incoming and/or outgoing messages selected that satisfy the content match condition you specify will be acted on according to the action you've specified in this filter. Whether the messages that are manually filtered by this filter are incoming and/or outgoing messages depends on which other box or boxes are checked: Incoming or Outgoing or both.

Note: If Incoming or Outgoing is checked (or both), the filter is automatic; that is, Eudora performs the filter operation behind the scenes, automatically, when you send or check mail. If you now also check Manual, the filter becomes both automatic and manual; that is, you can now manually perform the filter operation, by selecting Filter Messages from the Special menu while message summaries are selected in a mailbox window-but Eudora will still automatically filter the messages during mail sends and checks. In short, checking Manual does not "turn off" Eudora's automatic filtering for that filter.

Note: Making a filter Manual also gives you a good way to test the filter to your needs as soon as you set it up, rather than having to wait until the next time you send or check mail. After creating a manual filter with the Make Filter dialog box, check to see that it does what you want by selecting Filter Messages from the Special menu; your open message or selected message summaries are immediately filtered according to the new filter.

You can choose one of three content matches: From, Any Recipient, or Subject. Click From (turned on by default) to match the message against the From field-the sender-of the messages you selected. You can then edit the field. The From field of a target message must contain the information in this box but does not have to exactly equal it. Note that if you selected multiple messages and they do not have a common sender, the From field is unselectable and is left blank.

Click Any Recipient to match the message against any of the recipients in the messages you selected (recipients are contained in the To and Cc fields and, in an outgoing message, the Bcc field). Choose one recipient from the pulldown menu (accessed from the menu button next to the field), or edit the text in the field. Note that the information you enter in the field must be contained in any of the recipient fields of the target message but does not have to exactly equal any recipient field.

Click Subject to match the message against the Subject field of the messages you selected. If you have selected multiple messages and they do not have a common Subject, this field is left blank. In either case you can edit the field. The Subject line of a target message must contain the information in this box but does not have to exactly equal it.

Action Area

The Action Area lets you determine the one action that will be performed on messages that satisfy the Match Conditions you've specified for this filter. The three action choices are all message-transfer actions; they transfer the filtered message to a mailbox. For messages that satisfy your match conditions, your simple filter will transfer the messages to either a new mailbox, an existing mailbox, or your Trash mailbox. Click Transfer to New Mailbox to transfer the filtered message to a new mailbox that you will specify. The text field is filled in with a suggested new-mailbox name based on your selected content match condition (From, Any Recipient, or Subject). You can change this name if you like. The In Folder field is a label showing you the folder in which your new mailbox will be created. By default, this is the same folder that holds the mailbox containing the messages you've selected. The new mailbox is created as soon as you create this filter.

Note: You can set the value of the In Folder field to your own desired default folders based on the chosen match condition-From, Any Recipient, or Subject-using the three Eudora.ini file entries FilterFromFolder, FilterRecipFolder , and FilterSubjectFolder, respectively. Enter the path as it appears on the mailbox window. For example: FilterFromFolder=mail-lists\entertainment.

Click Transfer to Existing Mailbox to transfer the filtered message into one of your existing mailboxes. Select the mailbox from the button next to the field. The default mailbox is the In box. When you click the button, a version of the Transfer menu appears, letting you choose the mailbox from the Transfer menu. Click Delete Message (Transfer to Trash) to delete the message that satisfies the filter match conditions, transferring it to your Trash mailbox. This feature is useful for deleting junk email, or "spam" as it is called in the Internet world.

Buttons

. Create Filter - When you have set up your match conditions and filter action, click Create Filter to create the filter. The filter is added to the bottom of your filters list in the Filters window (discussed below). The filter is available immediately and will act on messages that satisfy the conditions at the next mail check, mail send, or selection of the Filter Messages command, as appropriate.
. Add Details - Alternately, after setting up the filter information, click Add Details to both create your filter and also open the Filters window so that you can add additional information to your new filter and make it more powerful or just change it. The filter is added to the bottom of your filters list and is immediately available in the form in which it was set up in the Make Filter dialog box. Any changes you make in the Filters window must be saved before they become effective. See below for more information on the Filters window.

. Click Cancel to cancel the filter if you change your mind. The filter is canceled and your changes are not saved.

Information from the Help File, Eudora Pro, Qualcomm Inc.

This article last updated on March 5, 2003.