6 steps to filtering your email account

It can be tricky to explain exactly why RSS feeds are so handy to someone who’s not used them, but basically it’s this: you don’t go to the web, the web comes to you.

The question, then, is how to do this. Fortunately it's not difficult; here's six steps to take you through the process.

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1. Colour-Cordinated

Whenever an important email arrives, right-click on it then select the Categorize option to tag it with a coloured icon for quick reference later on. There are six default colours but you can make more by clicking All Categories.

2. Unique Filters

This opens the Color Categories window. Click New to create a custom category, with its own name and a colour chosen from the drop-down list next to Color. Or just click Rename or Color to alter one of the existing categories.

3. Quick Click

If there’s one category you use a lot, hit the icon showing four coloured squares and choose Set Quick Click. Pick your preferred category and from then on one click of the square after an email in your inbox will add it to that category.

4. Mail Sort

You can create a rule that automatically adds any messages meeting certain criteria to a category. Right-click on a message, click Create rule and then Advanced options. Check the boxes next to the filters you want to apply.

5. Fine Tune

Clicking a blue underlined word lets you specify an exact requirement, such as a certain name or subject. With ‘Assigned to category category’, clicking the first ‘category’ lets you pick which custom category the email goes into.

6. Follow It Up

You can also set a prompt to follow up emails you can’t deal with right away. Right-click on the message, choose Follow Up and say when you should reply. Then click Add reminder and tell Outlook 2007 when to nag you.

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