Outlook Rules

[Roger Hale]

I have a client who has been using Outlook as a standalone POP3 client. He
now has a new laptop that he will be using with Exchange on SBS 2003. He has
a lot (around 450) rules that take incoming mail and deliver the messages to
specific folders and then send him an alert that he has received mail from
the person. I exported the rules to a file and then attempted to import them
to the new laptop. All but about 6 of the rules will not import correctly. It
seems as if Outlook now sees the folder path as different. Is there any way
to import these rules and not have to recreate all of them?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Aside from your issue, having 450 rules is a really bad way to organize your
emails. I've came across this many times though and often I could reduce the
amount of rules down to 10 or less when you also use a combination of Search
Folders, custom views, categories and automatic formatting. Rules really
isn't the only way to organize your mail.

 

[Roger Hale]

Thanks for answering. I believe that you're probably right, but it isn't my
email. My client uses them and I am in the unfortunate position of trying to
get them onto a new computer.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Changing PCs and email systems means it's a really good time to clean up and
change bad habits ;-)
The time spent on trying to get a grip on his/her mail rules spaghetti can
also be spent on explaining how they should do it properly instead. This
will also increase their productivity and reduce the support calls needed.
Surely they can see the benefit in that?

The alternative is indeed manually recreating/correcting the rules. You did
a full migration, some things simply cannot be migrated.

 

[Roger Hale]

Roady,

Thanks for your advice. I was really hoping I could just simply import his
rules, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. I will look at other
ways to help him manage his email.