Here's a number of recommendations:
* Entourage's junk mail filter is not Bayesian, unlike Apple Mail's. In
other words, the filter does not "learn" which messages are junk and which
not; it simply uses its own internal mechanisms, and these are updated by
Microsoft from time to time. Hitting the junk button in the toolbar simply
moves the currently selected message to the junk folder and marks it as
spam; it does *not* tell Entourage to do the same thing to similar messages
in the future. Sure, you do get options to choose from, such as marking
messages from the same sender as spam, but again, Entourage does not learn
on an autonomous base what is spam and what isn't.
* Because of what I've just mentioned, you should use rules to tell
Entourage what's junk and what isn't. For instance, I've got two rules which
deal with emails with attachments: if I get an email and it's got a .exe
file attached, it's marked as junk and moved to the junk mail folder. I
can't use .exe files on my Mac anyway, and nobody who knows me would
therefore send me .exe files. Also, if I get an email with an attached .zip
file, and the sender is not in my address book, Entourage treats it as junk.
Another rule deals with keywords: if I get an email which contains words
like "enhancement" and "Viagra" and the sender is not in my address book (I
highly doubt it that the people in my address book would actually use these
particular words in their emails, but you never know...;-) , it gets marked
as spam. Just work out situations in which messages are generally spam, and
create rules to sort them before they even hit your inbox.
* Play with the settings in Tools>Junk E-Mail Protection. If you get a large
number of junk emails, move the filter to a higher setting. Also, make use
of the "white list" in the Safe Domains tab; if you receive newsletters from
companies, put their domain names in there, and their messages will not be
marked as spam. Be careful, though: a number of spammers actually use
"official"-looking addresses, such as amazon.com, or even microsoft.com, so
it pays to be suspicious. However, if you've set up rules similar to the
ones I've mentioned before, then you should not see many of these emails, as
they tend to have an executable file in their attachment.
* The case you're describing is strange; when the people who send you emails
are in your address book (make sure it's the same address), their messages
should not be marked as junk mail. My guess is that Yahoo's filters have
marked it as spam and that they have modified the email's header, and
Entourage picks up that header and automatically marks it as junk. That's
the reason why I have switched off Yahoo's spam filter and let Entourage do
the job.
Hope this was helpful. Note that this list is certainly not complete, but
I'd say it roughly covers the most important areas of Entourage's junk mail
filter. Other posters might add some more information, and if you have any
questions, just post back.
Michel
