# Question about MS Outlook Rules

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 17, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344 "2007-01-17T17:42:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rattlehead02](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rattlehead02/32/3944_2.png) [@Rattlehead02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rattlehead02)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344/1 "2007-01-17T17:42:47Z")

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I’m using Outlook 2003 and have rules setup so that the 7 or so people who email me the most have their mails routed to different folders. They typically email my personal account.

I also have a rule that if an email comes in through my work account that email gets routed to my work folder.

The problem is when one of my “Top 7” email my work account it gets routed to that person’s folder AND the work folder. Looking at the rules it does seem there are exceptions you can add, but the best I could find was to exempt the “Top 7” from my “Work” rule. Fair enough. But it seems to me there should be a more generic “If a rule is already applied to a given email, ignore other rules” and then set a priority of some sort.

Is that kind of thing possible?

Thanks,

Jeff

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344/2 "2007-01-17T18:05:47Z")

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Without a complete breakdown of the logic you used in the rules I can’t help you more than this. The rules are applied one after the other until a branch occurs that moves the email to the desired folder. No more rules apply after the move. You may fix the problem by making the office account the first applied rule, so the other rules never execute. You could modify the 7 account rules to require that the work account is not the email address in a message, and that it has the person’s name in it. Theirs alot of different ways to set the rules that whould work, but I don’t have your rules logic to look at.

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**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344/3 "2007-01-17T18:07:10Z")

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The quick fix is to try moving the office account rule to the first postion of execution.

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**Author:** ![Armilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344/4 "2007-01-17T18:43:16Z")

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Move the “Top 7” rule to the top of the list so that it executes first. Then edit it and look for the “stop processing more rules” tickbox in the actions section.

Check that and it won’t apply any more rules to a message after it gets caught by the “Top 7” rule.

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**Author:** ![Rattlehead02](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rattlehead02/32/3944_2.png) [@Rattlehead02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rattlehead02)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-ms-outlook-rules/388344/5 "2007-01-17T18:52:40Z")

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Thanks for the responses! Armilla, yes, that checkbox seems to be what I want, thank you.

Jeff