Outlook 2010: Automatically Sort Incoming Email

When you receive a lot of email, your inbox can get cluttered and difficult to navigate. Thankfully, you can use the Create Rule feature in Outlook 2010 to sort your incoming email by sender. Here are the steps to set up a rule in Outlook 2010 that will automatically put incoming mail from a particular sender into a specific folder:

1. Select an email in your Inbox from the sender you’d like to create a new folder for.
2. Select Create Rule from the Rules dropdown menu.
3. Check the “From…” box at the top of the Create Rule dialog box that appears.
4. Check the “Move the item to folder:” box at the bottom of the Create Rule dialog box.
5. Click on the “Select Folder…” button on the right side of the Create Rule dialog box.
6. Click on the “New…” button on the right side of the Rules and Alerts dialog box that appears.
7. Name the new folder in the Create New Folder dialog box that appears.
8. Select where you would like the new folder to be created if you would like it somewhere other than the Inbox; Inbox is selected by default.
9. Click OK.
10. Click OK on the Rules and Alerts dialog box. Note that the new folder appears where you would like it.
11. Click OK on the Create Rule dialog box. You will be given the option to move old messages into the new folder in the Success dialog box that appears.
12. Click OK.

The Create Rule feature in Outlook 2010 is especially useful if you are subscribed to several mailing lists or websites that frequently send out updates. This feature will keep your inbox organized and simple to navigate.

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