One of the most sought features of an e-mail program is the ability to automatically route, print and otherwise process incoming messages — and outgoing messages as well. In Microsoft Outlook, this function is provided by the Rules Wizard. Outlook 2000 provides application-level events, allowing you to write VBA routines to respond to new messages in a folder and to perform operations on outgoing items. Beginning with Exchange Server 5.5, the Exchange Server Event Service can run scripts on a schedule or when messages arrive, change or are deleted.
Rules Wizard | Inbox Assistant | Other General Tools | More Information
Rules Wizard
Rules Wizard processes both incoming and outgoing messages. Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 come with the Rules Wizard. There’s nothing extra to download. For Outlook 97, you can downloadthe Rules Wizard from Microsoft.See also:
- Custom Actions — Add-ins to provide new capabilities to Rules Wizard or Inbox Assistant
- Rules Wizard and Assistants
Inbox Assistant
Inbox Assistant processes only incoming messages. In Outlook 97 or 98, you can revert from Rules Wizard to Inbox Assistant by removing the reference to Rules Wizard in the Add-in Manager (Tools | Options | Other | Advanced Options | Add-in Manager in Outlook 98). Only Inbox Assistant can send responses as a server-based rule or forward messages with headers intact.The Rules Wizard in Outlook 2000, on the other hand, provides parity with all Inbox Assistant rules and conditions. Therefore, Inbox Assistant is no longer needed and is not available in Outlook 2000.
Tools in the Spotlight
E-mail Follow-up reminds you to send a follow-up e-mail message if the reply has not been received in specified time. E-mail Follow-Up will watch for the messages and show you alert when the reply has not been received. Moreover, E-mail Follow-Up allows you to send follow up message using a predefined template to remind the recipient that the reply hasn't been received. Version 1. | |
Exclaimer Auto Responder is a multi-functional tool which allows you to automate replies to emails, redirect messages, add and remove senders and recipients from emails, as well as prevent messages from being delivered. Create personalised auto responses by including the sender's original message, add company branding, and attach files such as brochures and leaflets. Redirect messages to new domains or group mailboxes instead of sending to individuals. Change the senders and recipients of emails by switching from individual mailboxes to team mailboxes as well as being able to Cc and Bcc extra contacts. Exclaimer Auto Responder works with Exchange Server 2007 and 2010. | |
This add-in for Outlook organizes the email in your inbox by automatically moving it to folders you designate. Similar to our Sent Items Organizer, you can have the add-in automatically move the email to folders that you create based on who it's from, keywords in the subject or body, or you can have it prompt you for the folder each time it doesn’t know how to handle the email. It also comes with a facility to back propagate through all your old emails and file them accordingly. This add-in is a great way to reduce the number of Outlook rules you use. Enter code WD9BHK53 during checkout. | |
File 90% of your emails at the click of a button. Manage your Inbox and Sent Items folders. Move emails out of the Inbox to the correct folder at the click of a button. QuickFile remembers the folders used for each person and presents a short customized list each time. Use the same list to Send&File in one step instead of having to go back to your Sent Items folder. Plus many more email management features such as one-click creation of task/appointments from emails, newsletter processing, deferred non-urgent emails and much more. |
Tools
Attachment management addin for Microsoft Outlook enables you to detach attachments and embedded images as files in a local or network drive and link them up within the emails, for easy reference and retrieval. This reduces your Inbox size and makes Outlook run much faster and also removes the requirement for constantly archiving emails. Remove links and re-attach files back when required, or when replying or forwarding the emails. You can also set Attachment Manager to monitor any number of mail-enabled folders and mailboxes to automatically detach incoming emails, with no manual intervention. Optionally, you can also set the addin to skip detachment of certain attachments with specific extensions. | |
An add-in for Outlook that allows you use define rules to move mail from your Inbox (or other folders) based on several criteria, including the age of the message. Auto-Mate fills this gap an enables you to apply rules to messages that have been in your Inbox for a given number of hours, days or weeks. Available in Standard or Pro Version 5.0. Supports Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010. Now available for Outlook 2010 64-bit. | |
Available in two versions, a free personal edition and a more powerful professional version, ClearContext IMS is an add-in for Outlook that automatically prioritizes, organizes, and color-codes the e-mail in your inbox, placing the most important e-mails from the most important senders at the top of the inbox, ready to be dealt with immediately. Less important e-mails, such as newsletters and correspondence from low priority senders, are placed further down in the inbox and junk/spam e-mails are moved to the bottom. ClearContext IMS automates the e-mail filing process to help you keep your entire mailbox organized. Version 3.0 | |
Data Publisher add-in provides a means to bring your Outlook contents such as mails, appointments, tasks or contacts to SharePoint lists, where these can be shared with other users. This process can be performed manually, or automatically and is achieved without using any scripts or programming, with complete seamless experience to the users. In other words, Data Publisher extends your Microsoft Outlook to effectively act as a content provider for your enterprise SharePoint repository. It can be adapted to feed data to SharePoint lists for various purposes, such as for issue tracking, timesheets, projects or contact managements. | |
Email Responder plugin for Microsoft Outlook is an out of office assistant. Auto reply with email away message templates. Change your status and out of office reply templates remotely. Change your free-busy status manually (Away, Out of Office, Vacation, Tentative, Custom) or use your MS Outlook Calendar or Windows Live Messenger availability status. Auto response to selected Contacts or Distribution lists only. Enable MS Outlook auto forward. Version 2.20 | |
Exchange/Outlook add-on to create custom replies, forwards, signatures -- inserting any type of boilerplate text into your message. Templates are stored in Outlook or Exchange folders and can contain scripting elements (in VBScript or ET's own script language) to build replies that use information from the incoming message. Various extensions can handle such tasks as mailing list subscriptions. For a rotating quote, download the Rotating Text template. Has some issues with Outlook 2002 -- make sure you get the latest update, disable RTF templates, and don't try to use ET as a custom action in Rules Wizard. | |
Extracts information from incoming messages into databases, sends automatic replies, manages newsletter subscriptions, sends and collates questionnaires. Supports XML and scheduled tasks. | |
Anti-spam, disclaimers (with variables), archiving Internet mail, Internet mail usage reports. Includes a POP downloader and personalized server-based autoreplies that can include attachments and tracking numbers. Can archive to an ODBC database. Current version includes Overall improved anti-spam technology, an additional anti-spam engine called SpamRazer along with improved performance and a real-time dashboard. | |
An incident ticket management groupware add-in that leverages Microsoft Outlook, Exchange and SharePoint. Provide an easy way for support staffs to collect ticket data from emails, assign technicians and problem areas, set due date and other custom metadata. And then use this information to generate trouble tickets in one of the administrator defined SharePoint lists, where customer issues can be tracked and collaborated with other technicians and stakeholders to seek early resolution. | |
Integrates with Outlook to apply rules for inbound and outbound e-mail. Rules can be scheduled and can update data, route mail, run applications, and perform other functions. Can also schedule report deliveries. | |
Nemx Power Tools Version 5.1 now includes the ability to selectively archive messages by user, group, domain, recipients, or content to a MSSQL or ODBC compliant database to ensure government, industry or corporate compliance. The release also includes enhancements to its Friendly Domains auto white listing capabilities. | |
OLAP Statistics tool for Microsoft Outlook helps you to gain insight into your folder items and make new discoveries. It overcomes the limitation associated with the generalization of information using the Outlook views with only few fields at a time. It analyzes your Outlook data in multi-dimensional view in grids, charts and graphs and supports pivoting, drill down/slice and dice and filtering. You can run analysis tool on individual Outlook or public folder, with its own unique set of desired built-in and user-defined fields. You can specify any field as the measure using functions such as sum, count, distinct count, maximum, minimum etc, and use this against other fields to generate statistics. Now it's easier than ever to spot new trends and discover unknown problems in your data flow. Save and share reports as PDF, JPEG, HTML or PNG formats. | |
Mail organiser for Outlook to replace the built-in Rules Wizard. Offers unlimited rule capacity (only limited by your computer hardware), quick folder find, attachment renaming, and Bayesian antispam mail filtering. | |
An automated ticketing system for one-person helpdesk and issue tracking in Microsoft Outlook. Log, analyze, track and escalate support requests in an organized and structured process in Outlook. Auto-process incoming support requests and send automated notification emails or SMS alerts. Supports enforcement of SLA in line with ITIL guidelines. Integrated knowledge base, asset tracking and statistical tools. Support for Skype and Phone calls. Includes a self-service website where end-users can submit new support requests, check status, search through the knowledge base. Improves your efficiency to enable faster response time. | |
Message filtering tool for Exchange Server to block spam, proprietary information leaks and unacceptable language. Also can create automatic replies and perform rule-based archiving. | |
ITIL helpdesk with automated ticketing and issue tracking for support team to log, analyze, collaborate, track and escalate support requests in an organized and structured way in Outlook. Can auto-process incoming support requests, auto-assign technicians, enforce service level, set due date and send automated notifications to cut the overhead of manual tasks significantly. Comes with integrated Knowledge Base, Asset Tracking, SLA, Report builders and OLAP Statistical tools. Support for Skype, SMS and Phone calls. Includes Web Access sites for technicians and end-users. Improves your efficiency to enable faster response time. | |
ITIL help-desk with automated ticketing and issue tracking for support team to log, analyze, collaborate, track and escalate support requests in a structured way in Outlook and SharePoint. Can auto-process incoming support requests, auto-assign technicians, enforce service level, set due date and send automated notifications to cut the overhead of manual tasks significantly. Comes with integrated Knowledge Base, Asset Tracking, SLA, Report builders and OLAP Statistical tools. Support for Skype, mobile SMS and Phone calls. Includes Web Access sites for technicians and end-users. Improves efficiency of support team to enable faster response time. |
More Information
- Contact Management Tools — Many of these utilities include autoresponders as one method of managing communications with contacts.
- Content Control Tools — Includes tools to filter incoming and outgoing messages for content and attachments
- Message Extraction Tools — To pull information automatically from incoming messages for use in databases, replies, etc.
- Pager Tools — To automatically forward messages to a pager
- Fax Tools — To automatically print or forward incoming faxes
- Notification Tools — For enhanced alerts when new messages arrive
- Microsoft Exchange Server Scripting and Routing — Building server-based automatic processing applications
- A Visual Basic-based Active Messaging Inbox Agent
- OL Overview of Programming with Rules
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Last reviewed on Dec 8, 2011





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