You can out-prioritize Gmail's Priority algorithm by applying filters that move less-important messages to the folder of your choice. Unfortunately, the Gmail prioritizer relegates some important messages to the "Everything else" list and puts some less-timely mail in the Priority stack. I'm a fan of Gmail's new Priority in-box feature that attempts to place your most important messages at the top of your inbox. To mark all messages in a folder as read so you can be alerted at a glance to new mail in that folder, select it and click Message > Mark > All Read (or press Ctrl-Shift-C). As in Outlook and other mail systems, folders listed in Thunderbird's left pane appear bold when they contain unread messages. Select the filter you just created in the Message Filters list and click the Run Now button at the bottom right of the screen. Mozilla Thunderbird's Filter Rules dialog provides many options for redirecting the mail you receive automatically. Give the filter a name, select the desired filter criteria in the drop-down menus, and click OK. To create a message filter in Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client, click Tools > Message Filters and select the New button on the right side of the Filter Rules dialog box. The site also describes the rules-creation process for Outlook 2007 and for Outlook 2010. The other two options open the Create Rule dialog box and the Rules & Alerts dialog, respectively.įor more on creating and using Outlook 2003's rules to manage your mail, see the article on Microsoft's Office Support site. Selecting one of the first two options prompts you to select a folder or create a new folder to store the messages to or from the specified account. In Outlook 20, redirect less-important mail by right-clicking the message, selecting Rules, and choosing one of the four options: Always Move Messages From, Always Move Messages To, Create Rule, or Manage Rules & Alerts. Keep non-priority messages out of your Outlook inbox by directing them automatically to a separate folder via the Create Rule dialog box. Make your selections and click OK, or choose Advanced Options to open the Rules Wizard. In Outlook 2003, right-click the message you want to filter and choose Create Rule to open the Create Rule dialog. In Outlook this is done by creating rules that automatically forward the messages to the folder of your choice, including the Deleted Items folder. Microsoft's Hotmail service makes it easy to import mail from a POP or IMAP account.Īutomatically prioritize incoming mail via rules and filtersĪll the major e-mail systems let you process your mail before it reaches your in-box.
You can also select one of seven color-coded icons to use for the folder. You can create a new folder for the imported account or assign it to an existing folder. Hotmail will attempt to connect to the account and import its data. After you sign into your Hotmail account, navigate to the Hotmail Options page, enter the e-mail address and password, and click Next.
Linking a POP or IMAP account to Hotmail is almost as simple. To view your Hotmail account in Outlook, run Microsoft's Outlook Hotmail Connector, which also adds your Hotmail contacts and calendar entries to their Outlook equivalents. The Gmail help site provides up-to-date instructions for forwarding Gmail messages to POP and IMAP accounts and also for importing mail from other accounts into Gmail.
It has been almost three years since I explained how to direct mail to and from Gmail accounts and Outlook and Thunderbird. This also lets you filter the mail you receive at various accounts so less-important messages-such as the weekly neighborhood newsletter and special offers from your favorite merchants-are diverted automatically from your in-box to folders for review when you have the time. That way you've got one universal in-box that's accessible from a desktop mail app such as Outlook or Thunderbird and from a single browser window.Ī nice bonus of this technique is the ability to manage all your mail based on the strengths of each mail system: the rules, sortability, and integration of desktop clients such as Outlook and Thunderbird, and the easy, near-universal access of Webmail.
You can avoid having to open multiple programs or browser windows to view all your messages by forwarding mail between your active accounts.
Now you're likely to have a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or other free Webmail account-and maybe two, three, or more such addresses-in addition to or in place of your work and ISP accounts. Gone are the days of having only two e-mail accounts: one from your boss for work and another from your ISP for everything else. I'll wager you've got mail waiting for you right now-probably in several different inboxes.