Outlook email filter, how to make "OR" criteria, not "AND"?

Question

Outlook email filter, how to make "OR" criteria, not "AND"?

hgelh-3450 26

I am using outlook 2016, trying to add conditional formatting to my inbox email list. I want to highlight the emails to/from the same domain.

In "Advanced View Settings ==> Conditional Formatting ==> "Add" ==> "Advanced", I can add multiple criteria into a filter rule,
e.g.
"From" field contains "abc.com"
"To" field contains "abc.com"

But I found that the criteria are "AND". That means the filter applies to email only when all criteria are met.
I cannot find how to make the criteria become "OR". That means only 1 criteria need to be met.

Any advice?

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Answer 1

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,986 Microsoft Employee

Hi @hgelh-3450 ,

Agree with you, the criterias in Advanced filter are "And" and we couldn't change it to "Or".

In this case, I think the easiest way is to add 2 view for "from abc" and "to abc" in conditional formatting like below:

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hgelh-3450 26 Reputation points

2021-10-08T10:35:22.513+00:00

Then it would require at least 4 rules (to, from, cc, bcc) for a domain. If I want to change the condition (e.g. change the highlight color) in future, I need to edit at least 4 times. Kind of troublesome..........

In fact I originally planned to do this for a number of different domains (different color highlights). If 4 rules for 1 domain, that would be even more work..........
Jade Liang-MSFT 9,986 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-10-11T08:04:08.33+00:00

Hi @hgelh-3450 ,

Thanks for your update, I understand that this operation may be a bit cumbersome, but there may be no other option that could filter the messages that from/to a domain in conditional formatting.

By the way, as a workaround for your requirement, we could try to create a search folder, choose the unified "Mail from and to specific people" and then type the domain address in address line, but it also couldn't filter the message bcc to the domain.
Jade Liang-MSFT 9,986 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-10-13T08:39:07.537+00:00

Hi @hgelh-3450 ,

I am writing to see if you have any other question about this thread. Please let us know if you need any further assistance.
Yu Hsien Cheng 0 Reputation points

2023-06-27T01:42:04.49+00:00

If i want multiple conditions to be OR together, I would just split it into mutiple rules. e.g. if i want to hightlight from: @gmail.com OR from: @hotmail.com , i would just create 2 rules in the list with the same Font style that i wanted.

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Outlook email filter, how to make "OR" criteria, not "AND"?

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