Netscape Mail Filters

Filtering/Deleting Unwanted Messages in Netscape Mail 4 or 6 (Note that in subsequent versions the method should be similar).

The filtering capabilities of Netscape Mail 4 and 6 can be used to organize incoming email messages and/or delete unsolicited and unwanted email - i.e., "junk" mail or "spam". This document provides some filtering suggestions that will help you identify and delete unwanted messages.

Moving or Deleting Messages from Specified Sources

1. From the Edit menu, choose Message Filters to display the "Message Filters" dialog box.
2. Click the New button to display the "Filter Rules" dialog box. It is here that you'll set the criteria for filtering messages.
3. Enter a name for the set of rules you're about to define, such as SPAM Mail, in the "Filter Name:" text box.
4. The middle portion of the dialog box is where you enter the filtering criteria.
   1. Choose (click) the appropriate radio button to match ANY or ALL of the criteria you specify.
   • For example, to delete messages from a number of different sources and containing various subject lines, you'll probably want to choose "Match ANY of the following" (as shown in Figure 1, below). Choose "Match ALL of the following" when you want to refine the specifications - to include exceptions to the rule, for example (as shown in Figure 2, below).
   2. Make selection of subject from the drop-down menus and enter text in the text box (***SPAM***) as appropriate.
   • For example, to move or delete all messages that contains "***SPAM***" in the subject, the selection line should read "the subject of the message contains ***SPAM***".
   3. To include additional criteria, click the More button and repeat step 4b above.
5. When finished specifying rules, stipulate what to do if the rules are met by selecting Move to folder (Delete if you choose to delete the messages) from the drop-down menu next to "then".
6. Choose the appropiate folder or create a new folder using the New Folder option in case you want to move the
7. Finally, click the OK button.