Thunderbird:
Filtering Email Thunderbird:
Filtering Email
Filters can perform a variety of actions on a message or message thread including changing their priority, automatic filing into a mailbox, and automatic deletion. Thus you can use filters to manage incoming mail by sorting, filing, or deleting it.
Transferring to a Mailbox Based on Subject
Taking Advantage of the New Spam Headers
Changing Priority Based on Sender
Filtering Based on Customized Headers
The Setting: A few months ago you subscribed to the mailing list Earth-Info. At first the list wasn't getting a lot of traffic, but a recent magazine article has drawn a lot of attention and membership is booming. You still find all of the information on the list useful, so you don't want to unsubscribe, but the list sends you dozens of messages a day. It would be easier if you could automatically deliver these messages to their own mailbox rather than the Inbox so that you could view them at your leisure.
The Action: Use message filters. First, determine something unique about the messages from this list that will allow them to be filtered. The text "[earth-info]" in the subject line of every message should be unique. Start Thunderbird Mail.
CSS has implemented a filter that adds a tag to the subject line of incoming messages that are likely to be spam. Filters can be used to move these messages to any folder including the Trash folder, which is emptied every seven days. To do this, follow the procedure above, where the subject contains {*** SPAM ##} instead of [earth-info]. The perform action should still be Move to folder, but select any folder name or Trash from the default, probably loginID@engineering.uiowa.edu.
If you create a folder called "Spam" (must be a capital "S"and lowercase "pam", mail that has the subject line tagged as {*** SPAM ##} will be moved to the Spam folder automatically; you don't need to write a filter to accomplish that task. Message in the Spam folder are deleted every seven days.
The Setting: Lately you've been receiving several dozen messages per day. All of it is important, of course, but you've been expecting something of the utmost importance from your research collaborator Philip Jackson (paj@aemons.edu). When his message comes, you want to see it immediately.
The Action: Use message filters to change a message's priority. If you set a message's priority to highest, the word "highest" will appear next to the message in the priority column.
Philip's messages are unique; his From: address always comes as:
From: Philip Jackson <paj@aemons.edu>
Set up a filter based on the sender as either "Philip Jackson" or "paj@aemons.edu".
The Setting: Another mailing list that you are subscribed to has also recently been hit by a sudden surge of postings. Unfortunately, this list doesn't seem to include any way of identifying its messages. The subject isn't modified, the From: always appears as the original sender rather than the list, and the To: is always your own e-mail address.
Viewing the full headers [ View | Headers | All ] of the message reveals something, however. This list server software includes the header X-List-Remailer: i-list@heron.com in all of its messages.
The Action: A quick check of the filter rules shows that this header isn't already included in the filtering list, but it's easy to add it.
Even the most thoroughly thought-out filter can fail due to any number of unforeseen variables. Rather than creating a filter to automatically delete messages, set the filter to move messages to the Trash. Items in the Trash folder are deleted when they have been in the Trash for seven (7) days.
For further assistance, speak with the CSS user consultants, 1253 SC, 335-5055; send email; or read about "filtering" in Thunderbird Help | Mozilla Thunderbird Help.
CSS | College of Engineering | © The University of Iowa 2008.
All rights reserved. |