Setting Up Rules

Question

I have created a rule: If the message includes specific words in the subject or body 'Information Sharing' move the message to a specific folder. It is moving any email that has either word Information OR Sharing, but I want it to only move emails that have the term 'Information Sharing' so I have tried putting it in quotation marks "Information Sharing" and that does not work either. It is working fine with 1 word terms like A&E or Minutes, but I cannot get the multiple word ones to work correctly.

Answer 1

To ensure that your rule in Outlook only moves emails containing the exact phrase "Information Sharing" (including the space between the words), you need to use the correct condition settings. In Outlook, when creating rules, the condition for matching multiple words as a phrase does not always interpret quotation marks as expected. Instead, you may want to use the condition that specifically looks for the phrase in the subject or body without relying solely on quotation marks.

Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Use the "Subject or Body Contains" Condition: Make sure you are using the condition that checks for the phrase in both the subject and body. This should be set to look for the exact phrase rather than individual words.
2. Check for Additional Conditions: If you have any other conditions set that might conflict with this rule, consider adjusting them.
3. Test the Rule: After making changes, send a test email to ensure that it behaves as expected by containing the exact phrase "Information Sharing".

If the issue persists, you may want to check for any updates or support documentation specific to your version of Outlook, as functionality can vary between different versions and platforms.

Answer 2

Hi @Karen Antrobus, 

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your experience. 

I understand how important it is for you to be able to create a mail rule moving emails from inbox to a specific folder when it has the term "Information Sharing" and excluding emails including Information or Sharing from being moved. 

The behavior you are experiencing in Outlook on the web is expected in both OWA and new Outlook. To work around this, I would recommend switching back to classic Outlook and create the rule there. The below steps are how to create mail rule matching your requirement: 

1. In classic Outlook, go to File > Manage Rules & Alerts. 

2. Select New Rule > select condition "with specific words in subject or body" 

3. Click specific words and add "Information" and "Sharing", then select OK > Next. 

4. For the action, select "move it to the specified folder" > Next. 

5. Select folder to move the email to, for example: info sharing. 

6. Select Finish. 

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.    

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you. 

I look forward to continuing the conversation. 

 

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Answer 3

Can't do an exact multi-word string match. But you can do: If word1 AND word2. Ain't pretty but it works.

https://superuser.com/a/1343422/36886

Rule 1: If contains "Information" then assign CatA
Rule 2: If has CatA and contains "Sharing" then {do whatever}
Rule 3: If has CatA then Clear Cats