How can I make Outgoing rules apply to IMAP messages in Entourage 2004?

[denke]

I'm told this can be done, but I cannot find out how. If anyone knows
that it cannot be done, I'd be disappointed but grateful to know that.
Otherwise, it's driving me nuts, thinking it should work but won't and
not knowing how to fix it.

The gory details:

My Outgoing rules say, for example:

If any criteria are met
Any to recipient contains (e-mail address removed)
Any to recipient contains (e-mail address removed)
Set Project A
Copy message xxx
Set Category B

where (e-mail address removed) and (e-mail address removed) are the recipient's email addresses,
A is a Project name, xxx is the folder for email to and from the
particular correspondent, and B is a category.

The Enabled box is checked, and the "Do not apply other rules..." box
is not checked.

The Outgoing rules apparently don't have any effect on IMAP messages.
That is, the sent message will be in the Sent Items folder, but it will
have no Project and no Category, and there will be no copy in the xxx
folder - or any other. The POP messages are all handled as wished:
Project set to A, Category set to B, copy in the xxx folder.

I tried everything I could think of: made the criteria "any" rather
than "all" (even when there was only one) and "contains" rather than
"is"; and used the actual email address rather than the name. I even
reselected the folder after clicking "Choose folder..." to be sure I
was selecting the correct folder. I used Copy rather than Move, because
I gather that Move is problematic for IMAP messages.

I have corresponding rules set for the same correspondents in the POP
and IMAP tabs - with "From" criteria, of course. I have discovered that
if I add an "Any To recipient" criterion to the IMAP rule, I can select
the IMAP message in the Sent Items folder and select Apply Rule. This
shows me the rules from the IMAP tab. If I then select the
corresponding IMAP rule for that correspondent, it applies it--sets the
Project and copies the message to the designated folder. (I
deliberately do not set the Category in the IMAP rule, so that I can
tell which rule was applied.) This tells me that the "Then" part of the
rule is at least syntatically correct.

I have posted variants of this query several times, but in reply so far
I've gotten more questions but no solution. If anyone has one, I'd be
deeply grateful for it.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

The Outgoing rules apparently don't have any effect on IMAP messages.

I have found that to be mostly true as well. They seem to have forgotten
about Outgoing Rules when revising the IMAP code for 2004. The main problem
seems to be - as I think you've discovered too - that Entourage doesn't seem
to recognize that sent IMAP messages are sent messages - it thinks they're
received messages. Thus Outgoing rules aren't even available to apply to
them - it seems to think that IMAP Rules (i.e. designed for received
messages) are the ones to be used. So naturally Outgoing rules don't get
applied.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[denke]

I have found that to be mostly true as well. They seem to have forgotten
about Outgoing Rules when revising the IMAP code for 2004. The main problem
seems to be - as I think you've discovered too - that Entourage doesn't seem
to recognize that sent IMAP messages are sent messages - it thinks they're
received messages. Thus Outgoing rules aren't even available to apply to
them - it seems to think that IMAP Rules (i.e. designed for received
messages) are the ones to be used. So naturally Outgoing rules don't get
applied.
PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

Thanks for that, Paul. Now I can stop fretting about it. (If the
feature doesn't work, that bothers me much less than if I can't get it
to work. If it's Microsoft's mistake, I can let it go, but if it's my
mistake...)
I've given Microsoft the feedback.