- From your AOL Mail inbox, click on the "Action" button, and select "Create a filter".
- In the email rule popup, start by entering a meaningful name:
- Enter an email address in the "From" field to filter messages based on sender. (Right-click on an email and choose "Filter messages like this" to automatically add the sender's address !)
- For rules based on recipients, enter an email address in the "To" or "Cc" field: to automatically sort messages in which you're carbon-copied, enter your own AOL address in the Cc box.
Tip: AOL only knows of blind-carbon-copied recipients if you were one (and knows nothing about potential others). To match emails Bcc'd to you, select yourself in the "Bcc" dropdown.
- To filter messages based on keywords or key phrases, type them inside the "Subject" or "Message Body Contains" text box, respectively: this rule is ideal for newsletters with predictable subject lines: careful about words picked to avoid being too widely encompassing.
- Now configure up to three actions for matched messages:
- Select a folder from the "Move to folder" dropdown to automatically file these messages.
Tip: unfortunately, you cannot select "Trash" as destination folder, so pick "Spam" as alternative to automatically delete certain emails (they'll be out of your inbox anyway). Select "New Folder" to make a target folder: it won't create it every time the rule runs.
- Check the "AIM" checkbox to receive an IM alert if you are logged in to chat.
- Check the last checkbox to receive an automatic SMS text message alert to your phone: if needed, click the "Set up your mobile phone" link to add and verify your cell with AOL.
- Click "Create": the rule is active right away, for incoming mail (won't retroactively move emails).
- To edit a mail filter after the fact, click on "Options" (top right) and pick "Settings": select "Filters and Alerts" on the left, and click on the rule's name to open it in the same popup.
- To delete mail filters, move your cursor above the rule and click the "x" close button:
Email AOL Mail Gmail Hotmail Yahoo Mail MS Office Excel 2010 OneNote 2010 Outlook 2010 Word 2010 OS & Devices Kindle Fire Windows 7 Web Dev C# and .NET JavaScript jQuery