# Outlook Dissemination Rules.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-dissemination-rules/714015>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 2, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-dissemination-rules/714015 "2015-03-02T15:38:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-dissemination-rules/714015/1 "2015-03-02T15:38:33Z")

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I have a technical question. We have several people that pull from the same mailbox in Outlook. We currently have a third-party program installed on our system that automatically disseminates these emails to various people on a team.

The problem is that we are paying money for this program, and it is buggy to the point where it is actually counter-productive. We have a warranty on it, and we’re talking to the vendor engineers. But, on the side, I’m taking it upon myself to come up with some sort of free elegant solution.

It dawned on me that Outlook has rules that you can put into place for incoming emails. My knowledge of the extent of these rules is very shallow. Can I use rules in Outlook - or any other feature - to automatically and judiciously disseminate emails to a team of people?

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**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-dissemination-rules/714015/2 "2015-03-03T12:13:53Z")

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yes.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outlook-dissemination-rules/714015/3 "2015-03-03T14:33:30Z")

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The challenge with using Outlook for this is that runs on the client. So you could do something like set up Outlook on one machine to pick up mail for [Group@MyCompany.com](mailto:Group@MyCompany.com) and forward it to [Sue@MyCompany.com](mailto:Sue@MyCompany.com), [Bill@MyCompany.com](mailto:Bill@MyCompany.com), and [Jane@MyCompany.com](mailto:Jane@MyCompany.com).

But if that one client crashed or froze, or somebody closed Outlook on it, the mail would stop forwarding.

Having “several people pull from the same mailbox” is already wrong. Adding another layer of fiddling to it is not smart. If you need distribution groups, change to a mail system where the server supports distribution groups.