Outlook Rule performance

  • Thread starter Michael Bierman
  • Start date
M

Michael Bierman

I have a collection of like 22 rules. They are all working as
intended, but it occurred to me that Outlook might process them more
efficiently if I changed the order of them.

Does anyone know of a whitepaper or tutorial that discusses how to make
Outlook process the rules as efficiently as possible? Or does order
not affect performance?

Perhaps I should mention that all of these are local rules, there's no
rules on a server here.

Thanks.

Michael
 
R

Roady [MVP]

Order of rules does matter. Also use the "stop processing rules" action
aggressively. Try to combine as much rules as possible. Also see if you can
use other methods to achieve your goal instead by using rules. Think about
using categories and views. If you are working with Outlook 2003 also think
about using Search Folders.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data
-Creating a Permanent New Mail Desktop Alert in Outlook 2003
 
P

ProfDD

DRAFT White Paper on Mail-Processing Rules DRAFT

1. Unless you know how to do VBScript or VBA, the rules operate in
sequential order. If you do know these, this white paper is not for
you. Please wait for the follow-on: "1001 Ways to Waste Programming
Talent"

2. The rules should be in sequential order from most used to least used
with exceptions only for very elaborate rules and those that search the
body of long emails.

3. A mega-rule is a sequence of rules, only the last of which contains
the "stop further processing" command. Any one-rule sequence that
contains the "stop further processing" command is a mega-rule.

4. Principle 2 should be applied as if mega-rules were the units of
sequencing.

5. Mega-rules should be applied in order of increasng complexity given
constant frequency of application.

6. Eliminate duplicates and near duplicates.

7. It probably isn't worth going beyond this level of care in doing
rules at the workstation level.

8. Post hypotheses on user groups in hopes of getting useful criticism.
 
M

Michael Bierman

Thanks Roady. A couple of follow up questions, if I may?

1. I know that the order of execution matters (setting aside any
concerns about performance). Unfortunately, it seems Outlook makes you
choose between performance and execution order in some cases. For
example, if I have 6 rules-- 5 of which work perfectly well as "if X do
Y stop processing rules.." but the 6th rule should always be processed
on every email because you may want to apply it and allow the other
rules to continue processing, then the 6th rule must be placed first in
execution or it may never be seen. Further let's assume that only 1%
of all email received will trigger the 6th rule (now listed first in
execution). That means you will always trigger that rule even though
it rarely applies. Is there a way around this?

2. In terms of combining rules, I'm a bit stuck on one issue. I have
two rules as follows:

Rule1 "If "[email protected]" is in the message header assign it to
"bogus" category.

Rule2 "Assigned to "bogus" category
display "text" in the New Item Alert window
except if the message header contains "X-Text-Classification: spam"
Stop processing.

Can these be combined? I'm guessing that if combined, the exception in
Rule2 will halt the entire thing when I always want what is now Rule1
to occur. I guess I'm asking if within a single rule there is any
concept of if then, else. It doesn't seem like it to me so this limits
the opportunity for combining scripts. Please correct me if I'm
wrong.

Regards,

Michael
 
R

Roady [MVP]

1) I see no possible way in increasing performance here;
"the 6th rule should always be processed on every email"
"only 1% of all email received will trigger the 6th rule"
Meaning that it doesn't matter if it's processed first or last you want it
to process it for all messages. The amount of mails that actually apply to
the rule plays no part in it.

2) Depends on if you have other rules that assign the "bogus" category to
mails. If these are your only rules you can the combine the rule to
Condition; "If "[email protected]" is in the message header
Action: assign it to "bogus" category.
Action: display "text" in the New Item Alert window
Except: if the message header contains "X-Text-Classification: spam"
Stop processing.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
www.howto-outlook.com

Tips of the month:
-Properly back-up and restore your Outlook data
-Creating a Permanent New Mail Desktop Alert in Outlook 2003
 
M

Michael Bierman

from reply 1 "The amount of mails that actually apply to
the rule plays no part in it. "

Well if only a small portion of email ever applies to a rule, it would
be nice to skip checking for a condition when you know it isn't going
to apply--that's why "stop processing" is so appealing, right?

from reply 2, I guess what I was getting at is a situation where you
always want Action 1 but you only want Action 2 under some additional
circumstances. Rules don't seem to support that currently, correct?

Thanks!

Michael
 
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