How to configure Outlook 2002 to filter messages

See also: Introduction Eudora (PC) Eudora (Mac) Outlook 2000

1. From Outlook, click on the Tools menu then choose the
Rules Wizard option.

2. From the Rules Wizard dialogue box click the New button on the right

3. Choose the Start from a blank rule option and highlight
Check messages when they arrive as seen below,
then click Next at the bottom

4. Scroll down the list of conditions and place a check mark next to the
with specific words in the message header condition. When you do this the Rule description area in the bottom half of the window will now include this condition. To edit this condition click on specific words in the bottom window.

5. Type in Gauge=XXXXX as shown below and click the Add button, then click OK at the bottom. The number of X's determine at what level messages will be filtered. Each X represents a 10% probability that a message is spam. In this case, there are 5 X's, so any message with a 50% or greater probability will be filtered. Fifty percent is a good place to start. You can tune it later if you find that too many or too few messages are being detected as spam. Make it more sensitive by using fewer X's, or less sensitive by adding more.

6. Now click the Next button at the bottom

7. Place a check mark next to move it to the specified folder. When you do this the Rule description area is modified again with this new instruction. Now click on the word specified in the description area to choose which folder these messages will be sent to.

8. Click the New... button on the right to create a folder for the filtered email.

9. Type in a name for the new folder (in this case SPAM but you can name the folder whatever you want). In the Folder contains: section make sure it is set to Mail and Post Items and highlight Mailbox - in the Select where to place the folder area. Click OK at the bottom when you are done with these steps.
(NOTE: Mailbox - should have your name after it when you do this on your computer.)

10. Click OK once the folder has been created.

11. Then click Next when the Rule description area has been modified.

12. Don't check anything in Add any exceptions, just click Next at the bottom.

13. Type in a name (in this case Spam Filter) for the rule and place a check mark next to Turn on this rule, then click Finish at the bottom.

False Positives

As discussed earlier, the spam filtering is never 100%. If you subscribe to commercial mailing lists, these messages will likely be detected as spam. If you have too many problems with false positives, you can simply remove the rule and deal with spam by hand as it arrives. If you only have a few mailing lists or senders which trigger a false positive, you can create a new rule for each of them to override the spam filter.

14. If you find that legitimate email is being tagged as SPAM you can set up additional Rules using the same process described above to move the mail you want into different folders. The key is these rules must be checked before the SPAM rule. You can change the order in which Rules are processed using the Move Up and Move Down buttons located underneath the Apply rules in the following order: area. When you are done creating Rules click OK at the bottom to close the Rules Wizard.

For questions or comments, please contact the help desk at 424-3020 or E-Mail acshelp@uwosh.edu
Academic Computing, UW Oshkosh