Filters Setup

The filter setup dialog allows you to define the criteria for incoming message filtering.

Description
This field is the description of the filter that appear in the list of filters in the account setup dialog. It can be any mnemonic description such as "Tech Support" or "Spam Filter".

Rules
This section allows you define the keywords to search, and where to search for these keywords, in order to filter a certain message.

The "Search" fields define where to search for keywords. Keywords can be search in the To, From, Cc (carbon copies) and Subject fields.

The "For" field define the keyword or phrase to search for in the defined search field. Please note that Emerald Mail will search for the entire string defined in the "For" field, it doesn't break the string into single keywords.

You can specify multiple keywords by separating them with a comma (,) or semicolon (;). These keywords are connected with an OR operator, so at least one of the specified keywords must be present for the action to be taked.

The "Single search", "And", "Or" flags defines how the two search criteria should be combined to filter a message. "Single search" defines that only the top criteria should be considered; "And" defines that a message should satisfy both criteria in order to be filtered, "Or" defines that a message should satisfy at least one of the two criteria.

Actions
This section defines the action(s) that Emerald Mail should perform to filter a message that has satisfied the search criteria. Possible actions are "Move message", "Copy message", "Delete message", "Forward message", "Save attachments", "Run program".

When a Copy or Move action is choosen, a field appear on the right side that allows you to select the folder where the message should be copied or moved.

The Forward action requires a destination e-mail address. When this action is selected, a text field appear on the right side that allows you to enter one or more e-mail addresses separated by a space.

The Save Attachments action requires a destination directory. When this action is selected, a text field appear on the right side that allows you to enter the directory into which save the attachments. Make sure that the directory exists.

The Run Program action allows you to run an external program to handle the filtered message. Please note that due to the nature of Java the external programs are executed asynchronously, so it is possible that multiple programs are executed at the same time if there are multiple messages to be handled.

Please note that Emerald Mail executes the actions in the order they appear from the top to the bottom, so the delete action should be placed as the last action to be performed, otherwise the message will be deleted before any other action has the chance to take place.