The nightmare of Rules and Mailing List Manager

[tkx]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel
Email Client: imap

Personally, I cannot believe how Entourage applies Rules. Not just when email comes in and goes out, but all the time, for ever and ever on every message.

I found that emails that I moved around were being re-routed back to the mailbox I was moving them from. Entourage is "correcting" me, telling me, "no, that belongs there". I want emails moved as they come in, but I don't want them cemented into stone.

Maling List Manager isn't any better. All the emails that I send to the lists that I'm on get re-routed to the mailing list folder, instead of being kept where they belong - my Sent items.

It gets worse: I finally set up a Mailing List Manager config for a mailing list that distributes to my group at work. Some of our automatic processes send notifications of success or failure to this list. With every other email client, I can say: emails to my group go here, except the ones with subject "blah" or from "(e-mail address removed)", which go here. So, in Entourage, I have a Mailing List Manager config for the actual mailing list, and a Rule for some of the automatic processes. They're constantly moving emails around, as I move between mailboxes.

I can sit there and go back and forth and watch as they get shuffled back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

This is absurd and ridiculous. EVERY other email program allows you to apply filters, rules, or whatever you want to call them, but let the user override it by doing further filing. But not Entourage. Entourage instead overrides the user. That's seriously not on.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

Maling List Manager isn't any better. All the emails that I send to the lists
that I'm on get re-routed to the mailing list folder, instead of being kept
where they belong - my Sent items.

this is a setting in the MLM - 'also move messages I send to this
folder' or something like that.

 

[tkx]

I've tried the "if folder = Inbox", however that can only be applied to Rules, not to MLM. So MLM rules win, and Rules that are applied after to messages already processed MLM become ineffective (since MLM re-applies its action).

"Also move messages I send" is already unticked. All messages that I send should be dropped into the Sent items folder, not into the folder for the mailing list. The only alternative seems to be to mix my sent message into all the received mailing list messages, and delete the copy that I receive back (ie: "Delete copies of incoming messages that I sent to the list"). But that also means my Sent email is incomplete.

This seems like a very big hole in the logic of the Rules and MLM. The Help specifically says that once an MLM or Rule has been applied to messages as they're received, the rule is no longer applied (unless the MLM or Rule has the "continue to apply other rules" box checked). That is not the behaviour that I'm seeing at all. They are applied Always.

I suspect that Entourage is also unclear about what constitutes "new mail" in terms of IMAP messages. As it opens the IMAP folders, it seems to trigger the application of rules.

 

[Diane Ross]

I cannot believe how Entourage applies Rules.

There are 3 different kind of rules in Entourage:

Mailing List Manager (MLM)
Junk Mail Filter
Rules (custom rules you create)

They run in the order listed above. The custom rules also run in the order
they are listed. (top runs first)

Use the MLM for all lists. Use rules for the remainder. Try to use
categories instead of individual addresses when possible. When a new address
is added to a contact in the Address Book then it will automatically be
acted on by the rule if you use categories in your rules. See example:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/example/rule002.html>

1) POP Rules act on a message ONLY when it first arrives in the Inbox (On My
Computer), NOT when it arrives in any other folder. Once it's moved to
another folder it won't be seen by rules.

2) IMAP Rules are meant to act on a message ONLY when it first arrives in
the IMAP INBOX, not when moved to another IMAP folder.

3) Exchange Rules act on a message ONLY when it first arrives in the
Exchange Inbox.

Each type of account has it's own rules. Click on the correct tab to check
your rules. (Mail (POP), Mail (IMAP) Mal (Windows Live Hotmail) Mail
(Exchange), News, Outgoing)


See "Using Rules with Entourage" for help and examples:

<http://entourage.mvps.org/rules/index.html>