Making a Rule for "<no subject>" -HOW?

M

Mark

I would like to make a rule that filters any mail without a subject to
a special "quarantine" folder.

If I try to make a rule and set "Subject is" -and then leave the
subject field blank, Entourage X says that I can't leave the field
blank!

If I type "<no subject>" into the field (which is what is displayed
for emails with a blank subject), the rule does not actually work, and
email with "<no subject>" still winds up in my inbox.

There doesn't seem to be any way of keeping email with "<no subject>"
out of my inbox, and I think spammers are actually taking advantage of
this to force email into my inbox which I must manually delete.

Please, if there is a way to make a Rule that keeps "<no subject>"
email out of my inbox, tell me what it is! I can't believe there's no
option in the "Rules" for "if: Subject: is blank".

HELP!
 
D

Dave Cortright

I would like to make a rule that filters any mail without a subject to
a special "quarantine" folder.

If I try to make a rule and set "Subject is" -and then leave the
subject field blank, Entourage X says that I can't leave the field
blank!

If I type "<no subject>" into the field (which is what is displayed
for emails with a blank subject), the rule does not actually work, and
email with "<no subject>" still winds up in my inbox.

There doesn't seem to be any way of keeping email with "<no subject>"
out of my inbox, and I think spammers are actually taking advantage of
this to force email into my inbox which I must manually delete.

Please, if there is a way to make a Rule that keeps "<no subject>"
email out of my inbox, tell me what it is! I can't believe there's no
option in the "Rules" for "if: Subject: is blank".

HELP!
Click to expand...

You can "hack" a solution by having a check for "subject does not contain
"a"" and a similar check for e, i, o, and u. You could also add other
letters.

Or you can do this using an applescript.
 
W

Walt Basil

I would like to make a rule that filters any mail without a subject to
a special "quarantine" folder.

If I try to make a rule and set "Subject is" -and then leave the
subject field blank, Entourage X says that I can't leave the field
blank!

If I type "<no subject>" into the field (which is what is displayed
for emails with a blank subject), the rule does not actually work, and
email with "<no subject>" still winds up in my inbox.

There doesn't seem to be any way of keeping email with "<no subject>"
out of my inbox, and I think spammers are actually taking advantage of
this to force email into my inbox which I must manually delete.

Please, if there is a way to make a Rule that keeps "<no subject>"
email out of my inbox, tell me what it is! I can't believe there's no
option in the "Rules" for "if: Subject: is blank".

HELP!
Click to expand...

Have you tried just entering a space as the subject?
--
Walt Basil
www.basilweb.net

Got Unison? The ultimate newsreader IMO for Mac OS X
http://www.panic.com/unison/
 
M

Mark

Walt said:
Have you tried just entering a space as the subject?
Click to expand...

If I did that, the rule would only catch email that had a space for a
subject. A rule that catches a space for a subject wouldn't be a
solution for catching mail that has no content at all for its subject.

If I set up rules to catch subjects without an "a" or "e" or "i" or
"o" or "u" in them, since the Rules options are to activate the rule
"if any criteria are met" or "if all criteria are met" then such a
rule would either catch every email that didn't contain any given one
of the five vowels, or that didn't contain all 5 vowels in the Subject
line, respectively. Again, this is no solution to the problem.

At this point, I'm of the opinion that there is NO facility in
Entourage to filter out email that has no content for the subject
line.

Really, does anyone else know a way?
 
M

Mickey Stevens

If I did that, the rule would only catch email that had a space for a
subject. A rule that catches a space for a subject wouldn't be a
solution for catching mail that has no content at all for its subject.

If I set up rules to catch subjects without an "a" or "e" or "i" or
"o" or "u" in them, since the Rules options are to activate the rule
"if any criteria are met" or "if all criteria are met" then such a
rule would either catch every email that didn't contain any given one
of the five vowels, or that didn't contain all 5 vowels in the Subject
line, respectively. Again, this is no solution to the problem.
Click to expand...

That was actually the idea that occurred to me before reading David's post.
The idea is that no legitimate subject line is going to be without vowels;
if it doesn't have any vowels, then it must have no words, then it must have
no subject. That won't be good 100% of the time but should work much of the
time. The rule would look like this:

* Execute Actions if all criteria are met
IF Subject Does Not Contain a
IF Subject Does Not Contain e
IF Subject Does Not Contain i
IF Subject Does Not Contain o
IF Subject Does Not Contain u
THEN said:
At this point, I'm of the opinion that there is NO facility in
Entourage to filter out email that has no content for the subject
line.

Really, does anyone else know a way?
Click to expand...

I would create this rule:

* Execute actions if any criteria are met
IF Specific Header Subject Does Not Exist
IF Subject Contains No Subject
THEN <whatever>
 
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