Q: In what order do the rules run?
A: The rules in Outlook run in the order listed – top to bottom. Use the arrow button to rearrange the order if necessary.
Q:Messages are being duplicated by rules. How do I stop it?
A: Add Stop processing to the first rule that processes the message. When a message meets the condition of two rules, both rules will process the message, unless you add Stop Processing to the uppermost of the two rules. Use the arrow buttons to reorder the rules, if necessary, so the correct rule is listed first.
Q: Will Stop processing stop all rules?
A: Only on the current message. Rules will run on any other messages being downloaded. Stop processing stops the rules engine from checking additional rules against the current message.
Q: Should I add Stop processing to all of my rules?
A: If you want to insure that no other rule will process the message, yes. Exchange server users should use this with caution, as it can use up some of the space set aside for rules.
Q: How many rules can I have?
A: As long as you don’t use Exchange server, as many as you want (and can manage). Exchange users are limited to as little as 32KB of rules (approx. 10). This limit can be increased by the administrator on Exchange 2007 and 2010. It's set at the maximum value in Exchange 2013, 2016, and on Office 365.
Q: Is there a better rules editor, one that will let me sort my rules alphabetically?
A: Rules Wizard is the only rules editor Microsoft supplies. Sorting rules alphabetically could have unintended consequences since messages are checked against each rule.
There is one third party rules editor for Outlook 2007 and up: Power Rule Manager by Sperry Software.
If Gmail is my email provider but I access email through Outlook, are the junk mail settings in Outlook reflected in any way in Gmail - and visa versa? Is there a "best practice" in terms of where the filters are created and applied? In other words, is it more effective to create the filters in Gmail even if I access the email in Outlook?
The junk filters are separate - Gmail filters for junk and if Gmail misses any or you have some addresses blocked, they will be marked as junk in outlook.
Re creating a rule to deal with junk mail: Will such a rule trash the junk mail it identifies, or rather just make sure that the identified junk goes to the junk mail folder rather than to the inbox folder? Thx!
When you create a rule, it only runs on mail in the inbox. It will run after the junk email filter and can delete the junk it catches, if that is what you want.