Filtering Eudora Messages

Many e-mail management functions can be performed automatically using Eudora's filtering feature. For example, you can automatically reply to a request for information, transfer all messages from a listserv into a specified mailbox, or label all messages from your customers as "High Priority".

This web page is offered as a guide only. More detailed instructions and current information are available from Eudora's Help menu or in the Eudora User Manual. To access the Eudora's Help feature, select Help | Topics | Find. In the "Type the word(s) you want to find" field, type Detailed Filters and click Display (Mac: Help | Filtering Messages).

See Qualcomm's online tutorials, How to Use Filters (Windows) or How to Use Filters (Macintosh).

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Getting Started

You first need to determine something unique about messages from a particular listserver or sender that will allow those messages to be filtered, while leaving the rest of your mail intact. It could be text in the subject, a unique sender, text in the body of the message, or a customized header.

How to Create a New Filter

  1. Select Tools | Filters (Mac: Window | Filters) or click the Filters window tab.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Select the option(s) for which mail to filter.
    • Incoming - filter all incoming mail.
    • Outgoing - filter all outgoing mail.
    • Manual - filtering occurs when you select Special | Filter Messages.
  4. Select the criteria for the filter.
  5. Select the action(s) to be taken on these messages.
  6. To save the filter, close the Filters window, and click Yes (Mac: click Save) when prompted, "Save changes to Filters?".

Note: Filters are automatically named, based on the criteria for the filter. You can re-order filters using the Up and Down buttons above the list (Mac: drag a filter to reorder it).

When the filters are invoked (automatically or manually), each message is matched against each filter, in order, from top to bottom. If the message meets a filter's criteria, the action(s) are performed as specified until there are no more actions, then the message is matched against the next filter. If at any point a "Skip Rest" action is applied, filtering stops for that message, and the next message is then filtered.

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Criteria

Header: This pull-down menu sets what header type, full body text, or personality is searched for matches. (To view all of the message headers in a particular note, click the BLAH BLAH BLAH button while viewing the message.) You can select an option from the pull-down menu or enter one yourself. The available headers are:

  • To:
  • From:
  • Subject:
  • Cc:
  • Reply-To:
  • <<Any Header>> (searches text in any header)
  • <<Body>> (searches text in the body of the message)
  • <<Any Recipient>> (searches all possible recipient items (To, Cc, Bcc)
  • <<Personality>> (searches the e-mail account associated with this personality)
  • Other (If a header item, such as "X-Priority", does not appear on this list, you can type it directly into this field.)

Contains: This pull-down menu allows you to select the type of match in the above header. Type the text you want to match in the box which follows pull-down menu. Filter the message if the specified header :

  • contains - the text in the following box.
  • doesn't contain - the text in the following box.
  • is - an exact match of the text in the following box.
  • is not - an exact match the text in the following box.
  • starts with - the text in the following box (first non-white space after the colon).
  • ends with - the text in the following box.
  • appears - appears at all, this matches (the text in the following box is ignored).
  • doesn't appear - does not appear in the message, this matches (the text in the following box is ignored).
  • intersects nickname - If the selected text string is included in a nickname (whether it is a full address or a nickname within a nickname), filter the message.
  • matches regexp (case sensitive) - see Eudora Help from within Eudora for details.
  • matches regexp - see Eudora Help from within Eudora for details.

Ignore: (Conjunction box) - This box determines if a second set of matching criteria will be used, and how it will be used. Available options are:

  • ignore - Ignore the second criteria completely.
  • and - The message must match the first set of criteria and the second set for the filter to be activated.
  • or - If either set of criteria is matched, the filter is activated.
  • unless - If the first set is matched, but the second set is not, the filter is activated. 

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The Action Box

The action box describes what type of action the filter is going to perform. Any combination of one or more of these actions may be performed. The available actions are:

  • None - No action
  • Make Status - Assigns the selected status to message summaries.
  • Make Priority - Allows you set a priority level to messages.
  • Make Label - Add a predefined label to messages.
  • Make Personality - Assigns the selected personality to the filtered messages.
  • Make Subject - Lets you assign a new subject to message summaries (does not affect the subject in the message itself). You may use the & symbol if you want to add the new subject to the old subject.
  • Play Sound - You can specify a sound file to be played when messages are received.
  • Speak - (many options - see Eudora Help for details).
  • Open - Opens the mailbox and/or message when a message is received.
  • Print - Prints one copy of each message.
  • Notify User - Notifies you As Normal and/or In Report when messages are received. The As Normal option notifies you based on the options you have selected in the Tools | Options | Getting Attention options. The In Report option notifies you by displaying a filter report that details what filter actions have been done.
  • Notify Application - Notifies the selected application when messages are received, and provides information from the message. You should specify the application to use and the part of the message to be included.
  • Forward To - Forwards the message to the e-mail address you have specified. These messages are placed in the Out mailbox, and sent the next time you send queued messages.
  • Redirect To - Redirects the message to the e-mail address you have specified. These messages are placed in the Out mailbox, and sent the next time you send queued messages.
  • Reply with - Replies to messages with the stationery message you specify. These message are placed in the Out mailbox, and sent the next time you send queued messages.
  • Server options - Sets the message's server action to Fetch and/or Delete.
  • Copy To - Copies the messages to the specified mailbox.
  • Transfer To - Transfers the messages to the specified mailbox.
  • Skip Rest - Stops the filtering for the message (the message is not matched to the rest of the filters in the list).

Note for POP Users: If you set the action to Transfer To any mailbox other than the Trash and have Eudora set to Leave mail on server, the message will be removed from Eudora's In mailbox, but not deleted from the POP server; therefore the message continues to use disk space. You can set a second action — Server options: Delete — but may lose large attachments.

To review your Eudora server options, select Tools | Options | Incoming Mail.

Note for IMAP Users: Eudora has two methods for deleting IMAP messages. These options are discussed in the IMAP FAQ My filters no longer delete messages from the Inbox.

Deleting Messages: Even the most thoroughly thought-out filter can fail, due to any number of unforseen variables. We do not recommend creating a filter to automatically delete messages.

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Using the Make Filter Dialog Box

Eudora can help you automate the creation of filters for messages you have already received. To use the Make Filter dialog box, simply select a message in any mailbox or view the message. Then choose Special | Make Filter from the menu. For detailed information about using "Make Filter", see the Eudora online Help or the Eudora User Manual.

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How to Generate a Filter Report

To generate a report of filter activities, select Tools | Options | Getting Attention.
Click to select Generate filter report.
(Mac: Select Special | Settings | Miscellaneous and click to select Generate filter reports).
To view the report, select Tools | Filter Report.

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Example Filters

By Subject

Suppose you are no longer the person that handles departmental policies. You can set up a filter which checks incoming mail to see if the subject line contains "departmental policies" and then forwards those items to the person who now handles that mail (e.g., dept-policy@uiowa.edu).

  1. Select Tools | Filters (Mac: Window | Filters) or click the Filters window tab.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Under "Match" select Incoming.
  4. In the "Header:" field pull down the menu and select Subject:
  5. The field immediately below "Header:" should display "contains". If not, pull down the menu and select contains.
  6. In the blank field immediately to the right of "contains", type the text to search for, in this example, departmental policies.
    (The match is not case sensitive. The number of spaces between the words must match exactly.)
  7. Under "Action" pull down the menu and select -> Forward To.
  8. Type dept-policy@uiowa.edu in the blank field to the right.
  9. Your screen should now look like Figure 1 below:

    Match
    Figure 1: Based on Subject

  10. Click the x in the right hand corner of the window to close it.
  11. Click Yes when prompted with "Save changes to Filters?".

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By Sender - Play a sound when e-mail arrives from your research collaborator.

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 messages come in, you don't want to miss them.

In this example, Eudora will play a tune every time you receive a message from Philip.

We already know something about Philip's messages that are rather unique to him — his "From:" address. His "From:" address always displays as:

From: Philip Jackson <paj@aemons.edu>

You can easily set up a filter based on the sender as either "Philip Jackson" or "paj@aemons.edu".

  1. Select Tools | Filters (Mac: Window | Filters) or click the Filters window tab.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Under "Match" select Incoming.
  4. In the "Header:" field pull down the menu and select From:
  5. The field immediately below "Header:" should display "contains". If not, pull down the menu and select contains.
  6. In the blank field immediately to the right of "contains", type the text to search for, in this example,
    paj@aemons.edu
    (The match is not case sensitive.)
  7. Under "Action" pull down the menu and select -> Play Sound.
  8. Click the button to the right which displays "...".
  9. In the "Select sound file" window, select the sound file you want to hear.
  10. Your screen should now look like Figure 2 below:

    Match
    Figure 2: By Sender - Play a Sound

  11. Click the x in the right hand corner of the window to close it.
  12. Click Yes when prompted with "Save changes to Filters?".

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By Customized Header - Recommended for Bulk E-Mail

A mailing list that you are subscribed to has recently been hit by a sudden surge of e-mail postings. Unfortunately, this list doesn't appear to include any way of distinguishing the messages from your personal mail. The subject isn't modified, the "From:" field always appears as the original sender rather than the list, and the "To:" is always your own e-mail address.

Viewing the full headers of the message reveals something, however. (To view all of the headers, select the BLAH BLAH BLAH button while viewing the message.) The messages from this listserver include the header:

X-List-Remailer: i-list@heron.com

The following example moves all e-mail messages that contain the above header into a mailbox called FilteredMessages.

  1. Select Tools | Filters (Mac: Window | Filters) or click the Filters window tab.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Under "Match" select Incoming.
  4. Pull down the "Header:" menu. Select the header you wish the filter to search in. If the header is not listed, type it in. In this example type X-List-Remailer:
  5. The field immediately below "Header:" should display "contains". If not, pull down the menu to select contains.
  6. In the blank field immediately to the right of "contains", type the text to search for, in this example,
    i-list@heron.com
    (The match is not case sensitive on the header name or the text following the header.)
  7. Under "Action" pull down the menu and select -> Transfer To.
  8. Click the In in the box to the right and select -> New...
  9. In the New Mailbox dialog box, type in FilteredMessages.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Your screen should now look like Figure 3 below:

    Match
    Figure 3: Filtering Based on Customized Headers

  12. Click the x in the right hand corner of the window to close it.
  13. Click Yes when prompted with "Save changes to Filters?".

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Muliple Actions

You can set up filters to do multiple things. The example below shows a filter that checks the body of an incoming message and, if it contains the words "salary matrix", AND "merit staff" it then makes a label (Red), prints it, and copies the message to the salary info mailbox.

  1. Select Tools | Filters (Mac: Window | Filters) or click the Filters window tab.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Under "Match" select Incoming.
  4. In the "Header:" field pull down the menu and select <<Body>>.
  5. The field immediately below "Header:" should display "contains". If not, pull down the menu and select contains.
  6. In the blank field immediately to the right of "contains", type the text to search for, in this example,
    salary matrix
    (The match is not case sensitive.)
  7. In the field immediately below (the conjunction box) pull down the menu and select and.
  8. In the second "Header:" field pull down the menu and select <<Body>>.
  9. The field immediately below this "Header:" should display contains. If not, pull down the menu and select contains.
  10. In the blank field immediately to the right of contains, type the text to search for, in this example,
    merit staff
    (The match is not case sensitive.)
  11. Under "Action" pull down the first menu and select -> Make Label.
  12. Click the word None to the right and select a label, in this example Label 2.
  13. Under "Action" pull down the second menu and select -> Print.
  14. Under "Action" pull down the third menu and select -> Copy To.
  15. Click the word In in the box to the right and select -> New...
  16. In the New Mailbox dialog box, type in salary info.
  17. Click OK.
  18. Your screen should now look like Figure 4 below:

    Multiple Actions
    Figure 4: Multiple Actions

  19. Click the x in the right hand corner of the window to close it.
  20. Click Yes when prompted with "Save changes to Filters?".

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