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Creating an AND rule in Outlook Rules

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› Outlook › Rules, Filters & Views › Creating an AND rule in Outlook Rules

Last reviewed on March 11, 2021     3 Comments

A security update disabled the Run a script option in the rules wizard in Outlook 2010 and all newer Outlook versions. See Run-a-Script Rules Missing in Outlook for more information and the registry key to fix restore it.

A user wanted to know how to create an AND rule:

If the subject contains outlook AND word, do something

For example: "outlook AND word" to match on a Subject line of "Mail merge Outlook and Word", but not "Outlook Teams Meeting"

While Outlook Rules don't support AND within a rule, you can make it work using two rules. The first rule looks for one word, sets a category, and does not use stop processing more rules. The second rule looks for the second word (and can clear the category field).

Step 1: Create a rule that looks for one of the words and add a category if the word is found. Do not use Stop Processing.
rule 1 looks for a word and sets a category

Step 2: Create a second rule to look for the other word. You can use stop processing in this rule.
rule 2 looks for a word

The result: all messages with those two words in the subject are moved.
all messages with both words in the subject are moved

 

Use a Run a Script Rule

Instead of using two rules, you can a run a script rule to check for the presence of both words.

You will need to set a registry key to enable the Run a script option in Rules & Alerts in Outlook 2013 and newer. See Run-a-Script Rules Missing in Outlook for more information and the registry key to fix restore it.

run a script rule example

Sub ANDRules(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
   
   If InStr(1, LCase(Item.Subject), "outlook") > 0 And InStr(LCase(Item.Subject), "word") > 0 Then
     ' do something
   
' use these actions for testing purposes  
     MsgBox "We have a match!!! " & Item.Subject
       Else  
    MsgBox "No Match :( " & Item.Subject

   End If

End Sub

To test the rule without needing to send messages to yourself, select a message and run this script.

' use this to test the script - select a message and run this macro
Sub RunAndRules()
Dim objApp As Outlook.Application
Dim objItem As Object ' MailItem
Set objApp = Application
Set objItem = objApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)

'macro name you want to run goes here
ANDRules objItem

End Sub

How to use the macros on this page

First: You need to have macro security set to the lowest setting, Enable all macros during testing. The macros will not work with the top two options that disable all macros or unsigned macros. You could choose the option Notification for all macros, then accept it each time you restart Outlook, however, because it's somewhat hard to sneak macros into Outlook (unlike in Word and Excel), allowing all macros is safe, especially during the testing phase. You can sign the macro when it is finished and change the macro security to notify.

To check your macro security in Outlook 2010 and newer, go to File, Options, Trust Center and open Trust Center Settings, and change the Macro Settings. In Outlook 2007 and older, look at Tools, Macro Security.

After you test the macro and see that it works, you can either leave macro security set to low or sign the macro.

Macros that run when Outlook starts or automatically need to be in ThisOutlookSession, all other macros should be put in a module, but most will also work if placed in ThisOutlookSession. (It's generally recommended to keep only the automatic macros in ThisOutlookSession and use modules for all other macros.) The instructions are below.

The macros on this page should be placed in a module.

Open the VBA Editor by pressing Alt+F11 on your keyboard.

To put the code in a module:

  1. Right click on Project1 and choose Insert > Module
  2. Copy and paste the macro into the new module.

More information as well as screenshots are at How to use the VBA Editor

Creating an AND rule in Outlook Rules was last modified: March 11th, 2021 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • To create a rule with wildcards
  • Filter mail when you are not the only recipient
  • How to Process Mail After Business Hours
  • Filter messages containing spam or other words

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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g f
August 26, 2022 8:39 am

Incredible. Why doesn't it just allow AND???

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  g f
August 26, 2022 10:43 am

They haven't really done much work on the Rules engine since adding it 15+ years ago and back then, they didn't think AND was important.

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0
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kindlin
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
January 13, 2023 3:59 pm

Classic Micro$oft. As a comment said on Stack Exchange, I'm not sure how the people at MS haven't died from embarrassment with all the many MANY small but seriously annoying issues that nearly every piece of software they've ever produced has had.

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