The inbox of your email account is so full of messages and “chaotic” that you can never find the emails you need? Why not try reorganizing it by sorting the emails into specific folders? Think about it: this way, you can keep everything more organized by separating the emails received from your boss or colleagues from those sent by your friends or family, all without much effort.
Wondering how you can do this? The answer is simple: you can set up automatic filters that allow you to do everything in an extremely convenient and simple manner. If you dedicate a few minutes of your free time, in this guide I can explain how to best use the email filtering function to sort incoming mail both with the main email clients and with the most popular webmail services.
So, would you like to know more? Yes? Great! Get comfortable, take your time to focus on reading the next paragraphs, and, above all, apply the “tips” I will give you. I am sure that as soon as you finish reading this article, you will know how to sort emails and maybe you can also help your friends organize their respective inboxes. I wish you happy reading and, above all, good fun!
Preliminary Information: How to Sort Emails
To sort emails and keep them organized, you can take advantage of the filters and rules mechanism, provided by almost all webmail services and available in various email programs for computers.
By doing this, you can instruct the server or the program to automatically redirect a message to a specific folder, based on the occurrence of certain conditions: the sender of the message, the presence of certain words in the text or in the body of the message, whether or not there are attachments, and so on.
The rules can be created with relative ease, directly from the settings of the webmail service or the email client in use. It should be specified, however, that rules created in webmail are automatically replicated on all computers, smartphones, tablets, and, in general, on all email programs and apps configured for the use of the email account.
On the other hand, the reverse does not hold: configuring a filter within an email client results in the sorting of messages being done locally and, consequently, it is not replicated on the server, nor on all other devices synced to the same email account. Keep that in mind.
How to Sort Emails into Other Folders: Web Services
Having made all necessary clarifications, it is time to explain how to create filters and rules for sorting emails, using the web services provided by various providers: as mentioned earlier, changes made in webmail automatically reflect on any other device or program configured with the email account in question.
Generally, to proceed, you need to open the webmail of the chosen service from a computer or tablet (webmail for smartphones generally does not have the functionality for creating filters and rules), go to the area dedicated to managing messages, and after opening the section dedicated to filters/rules, click on the button to create a new rule.
As you can easily imagine, the steps to take are not always the same, and vary based on the service in use; below you will find the complete procedures to follow on the web services offered by some well-known email providers.
How to Sort Emails: Gmail
If you use Gmail, go to the service login page and access your account by entering your credentials in the appropriate text fields. Once logged in, click on the gear icon located at the top right, press the See All Settings button present in the panel that opens, and when you reach the Gmail Settings page, open the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
Now, press on the Create a new filter option, specify the conditions for moving the messages (e.g. From to specify a sender, Subject to filter emails based on subject, Contains the words to indicate the words that must be found in the message, and so on), and then press on the Create filter option.
At this point, select the checkbox next to Apply the label and indicate in the adjacent menu the label, that is, the folder, to which to move the messages. If you wish, you can select more than one option, based on the type of rule you want to create. Finally, click on the Create filter button and you’re done.
Note: you can quickly access the filter creation function by clicking on the switches icon, located to the right of the Gmail search bar.
How to Sort Emails: Outlook.com
Now let’s move on to the Outlook.com service. To sort emails, go to the webmail, access your account, and once connected, press the gear icon located at the top right.
In the next window, click on the Mail and Rules tabs, press the Add new rule button, and to start, give a name to the new rule by typing it in the corresponding field in section (1).
Then, move to the drop-down menu Add a condition and specify the condition that must occur for the message to be sorted automatically: for example, by selecting the From option, you have the option to indicate the sender of the emails to be moved; if you wish, you can specify more than one, separating the various addresses with a semicolon “;”. If you need to specify multiple conditions, press the Add a condition option and repeat the above steps.
Now, go to the Add an action menu, choose the Move to option, and select the folder of your choice from the drop-down menu that appears next; if you wish, you can create new folders on the spot by pressing the appropriate option. When you are done, check the boxes next to Stop processing more rules and Run rule now and click the Save button to finish.
How to Sort Emails: Libero/Virgilio
If you want to create rules on Libero Mail or Virgilio Mail, go to the webmail and, when prompted, log in with your email account. Next, click on the gear icon located at the top right, select the Settings option from the menu that opens, and when you reach the next panel, press the Mail and Filters menus (on the side).
Now, click on the Add a new rule button, provide a name to assign to the rule in the appropriate text field, and click on the Add a condition option; now, select the option that is most in line with the filter you intend to create (e.g., Sender, Subject, and so on) from the menu that opens, and use the field that appears right afterward to specify the selection parameters (e.g., email addresses of senders or words contained in the subject).
Then, click on the Add an action option, set the drop-down menu that appears to the Move to folder option, press the Select folder option, and choose the folder of your interest using the panel that appears right afterward. If you wish, you can create a new folder on the spot by pressing the appropriate button located at the bottom left.
After making your choice, click on the Select button and finish creating the filter by pressing the Save button. That’s it!
How to Sort Emails: Aruba
Now let’s move on to Aruba’s webmail. To begin, log into the service using your email account credentials, and if you’re using the old interface, press the angular arrow corresponding to Message Rules (if not visible, hover your mouse over the funnel icon to show it) and choose the Create rule option from the menu that opens.
Now, assign a name to the rule by typing it in the text field at the top and indicate the conditions that must be verified, using the drop-down menus and fields displayed on the screen; if you wish, you can also define more than one condition, if you believe that the message must satisfy them all.
After this step, press the Next button, check the box next to Move to, and use the adjacent drop-down menu to choose the folder where you want to redirect the email; to finish, click on the Save button and you’re done.
If, on the other hand, you chose to switch to the new webmail, click on your initials placed at the top right, select the Settings option from the menu that opens, and expand the sections Messages and Writing > Message Rules. At this point, click on the Create rule button and act similarly to what we just saw, making sure to click the Proceed button, instead of the Next button.
Note: the above procedure also applies to the Aruba PEC service.
How to Sort Emails: Clients
As I mentioned at the beginning of this guide, the filters created through webmail on various email services are automatically applied when messages are received; the same goes for user folders, which are automatically added.
For this reason, where you have already intervened on your webmail, there is no need to define additional rules in the client; however, if you have different needs and want to sort your emails directly in the program you use to manage them, you just need to enter its settings and go to the section to create new rules.
As you can easily imagine, there is no universal procedure as each program has different steps; by way of example, I will indicate below how to act on the most well-known and widely used solutions for computers. Clients for smartphones and tablets generally do not offer any possibility to set filters and rules for the automatic sorting of messages.
Outlook (Windows/macOS)
If you use the new Outlook client for Windows (the one preinstalled and downloadable for free from the Microsoft Store, for example) or have activated the new Outlook interface in Outlook 365 for Windows, you will be pleased to know that the steps to create a new rule are extremely simple and correspond in every way to those already seen for the homonymous web service.
If you are using Outlook 365 (the email client included in the Microsoft 365 suite) on Mac, or if you use the classic interface on Windows, do the following: first, launch the email program, wait for all the emails to download, and click on the Rules button located at the top. If this button is not visible, because you are using the simplified ribbon, click on the … icon at the top right and select the Rules option from the menu that appears.
Now, click on Manage rules and alerts… visible in the additional panel that appears on the screen, click on the New Rule… button at the bottom and choose the sorting mode you prefer from those suggested in the Organize section: for example, you can move messages sent by a specific user to a folder, move messages with specific words in the subject to a folder, or move messages sent to a public group to a folder.
After making your choice, click on the users or public group or specific words text within the Step 2 section (at the bottom) and proceed according to the previous choice: in the first case, you need to manually specify the emails of the senders subjected to filtering in the From box, separating the addresses with a “;”, or double click on each of the contacts involved, from the list at the top.
In the second case, you need to specify the words or phrases to look for in the subject in the text field that appears at the top and then click on the Add button; if you wish, you can insert more elements into the same rule, creating a real research list.
Now, click on the OK button to return to the rule creation screen, click on the highlighted specified text, and select the folder where to move the messages that match the configured selection; if you wish, you can create new folders on the fly by clicking on the New… button located on the side.
At this point, click on the OK button, check the box next to Activate rules for all messages downloaded from RSS feeds, and if you are satisfied with the created rule, click on the Finish, Apply, and OK buttons to implement it; if not, instead click on the Next button and further refine the filter by specifying additional selection and sifting parameters. In this case, after completing rule creation, click on the Finish, Apply, and OK buttons to finish.
Apple Mail (macOS)
Now, let’s move on to the Apple Mail client for macOS; I point out, before starting, that all rules configured through the application are also synced on the Mail apps installed on other Macs, iPhones, and iPads associated with the same Apple Account in use on the computer, if present.
That said, to proceed, launch the application in question, click on the Mail menu on the Mac menu bar, and press the Preferences… option to open the client settings screen. At this point, click on the Rules tab located at the top right, press the Add button, and use the displayed options and menus to define your filter: enter the name of the rule in the Description text box and indicate in the adjacent drop-down menu next to the If option the ways in which the filter should operate (for example, it activates upon the occurrence of any of the specified conditions or when they all occur simultaneously).
Now, specify the condition that the message must meet using the drop-down menus located a little lower: for example, by setting the first drop-down menu to Subject and the second to contains, you can filter messages based on the text contained in the subject of the email;
Now, move to the Perform the following actions pane: use the leftmost drop-down menu to define the action to be performed on the message (e.g. Move message, Forward message, etc.) and indicate in the adjacent drop-down menu the folder/mailbox where to sort the mail.
If you need to add additional conditions and/or actions to analyze/perform from the filter you are creating, press the buttons (+) and (–) that you see on the screen, according to the If and Perform the following actions sections. To finish, press the OK and Apply buttons to apply the changes made and you’re done.
Thunderbird (Windows/macOS)
If you want to sort emails and use Mozilla Thunderbird as your default email client, after opening the program, click the (≡) button at the top right and select the Tools > Message Filters option from the menu that appears.
In the window that opens, select the mailbox for which to apply the filters, using the drop-down menu at the top, click the New… button, and set the rule by which emails should be sorted: type the name of the filter in the text box at the top and choose one of the options regarding when to trigger the filter (e.g. When new mail is downloaded, after sending, periodically, and so on).
Now, define the conditions that the message must meet to fall under the filter, using the drop-down menus and text box located in the upper pane (e.g. subject, contains, and [text], to filter the message based on text contained in the subject) and, if you need to indicate additional conditions, click the [+] button and repeat the same steps. Then, indicate whether the message should satisfy all defined conditions, satisfy only one, or if all must be satisfied unconditionally, checking the most appropriate box.
At this point, move to the Perform these actions pane and choose the operation you want to perform upon the occurrence of the previously set conditions: then use the options available in the appropriate drop-down menu (e.g. Move message to, Mark as read, Forward message to, etc.), then choose the folder to sort the messages from the drop-down menu right next to it and click the OK and Run now buttons to save the settings and apply filtering to emails already in the inbox.
If you need to create a new folder in Mozilla Thunderbird, just right-click on your email address in the left sidebar and select the New folder… option from the menu that appears; the folder will be immediately available in the menu for creating Thunderbird filters, and you can use it following the guidelines I provided earlier.