Setting up email rules in Outlook 2016

This tutorial assumes you already have an existing email account and it’s configured in Outlook.

Now let’s learn how to set up email rules in Outlook.

With the Home tab selected, click Rules.

Then click Create Rule.

From here, you can set up rules to automatically deliver incoming messages to specific folders or play a specific sound when messages arrive from certain people or if the subject contains certain text.

This opening Create Rule window contains some common rules you may want to set up… but if nothing here matches what you want to do, click the Advanced Options button.

First, in step 1, select a condition from the choices given. In this case, we want to set up a rule when an email arrives from a specific address.

Then in step 2, click to edit the rule description.

Locate the email address you want to set the rule up for; if it’s not already in your address book, enter it at the bottom.

Then click OK.

Click Next.

Choose what you want to do with these messages. In this case, we will move it automatically to a specific folder.

Then click to edit the rule description, and select the folder where you want these messages moved.

Click Next.

If there are exceptions to this rule, we can enter them here.

Click Next.

Specify a name for the rule.

Check if you want to run the rule on messages you’ve already received, and make sure the rule is turned on.

When ready, click Finish.

That’s it! The rule has been set up and applied as messages arrive in our inboxes.

This is the end of the tutorial. You now know how to set up email rules in Outlook.