Re: Rules Problem (blank emails)
From: Vanguard (see_signature)
Date: 01/04/05
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Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 22:41:26 -0600
"Tony Shrapnel" <shrapnel@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:O%mCd.102509$K7.74521@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> Thanks again, but I did try and fully test the first suggestion before
> my follow-up post. However, I'll take on board all you have said and
> have another go.
>
> TS
>
> "Vanguard" <see_signature> wrote in message
> news:zo2dnYULgMvQ9ETcRVn-tA@comcast.com...
>> "Tony Shrapnel" <shrapnel@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
>> news:tUaCd.101986$K7.93140@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>>> Thanks for your suggestion, but that does not work. You only have
>>> the option of excepting words, not characters. If you set the rule
>>> to allow emails with "a" in the subject, it will still block (for
>>> example) "that".
>>>
>>> TS
>>>
>>> "Vanguard" <see_signature> wrote in message
>>> news:%23KXKtHJ8EHA.3376@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>>>> "Tony Shrapnel" <shrapnel@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
>>>> news:16MBd.99518$K7.50922@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>>>>>I use Outlook 2003 and every day I receive several totally blank
>>>>>emails. I want to create a rule to filter them to my Deleted Items
>>>>>folder, but I can't see how to do it. The Rules Wizard always wants
>>>>>some actual value to work with and you can't insert "nothing" as a
>>>>>criterion (i.e. ""). I would be grateful for any suggestions.
>>>>>
>>>>> Tony Shrapnel
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Think in reverse. You want to keep e-mails that have a non-blank
>>>> Subject. In reverse, you want to delete all e-mails that have a
>>>> blank Subject, so defined THAT rule. Define a rule that deletes
>>>> everything except if it has "a" to "z" or "0" to "9" in the Subject
>>>> header.
>>>>
>>>> Some folks shorten the rule by just looking for the vowels instead
>>>> of every alphanumeric character, but there are languages that have
>>>> words with no vowels in them, like Welch and Jewish, or strings
>>>> that are valid without any vowels in them, like "Mr. X, tsk tsk
>>>> tsk."
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>>> Post your replies to the newsgroup. Share with others.
>>>> E-mail: newsDOTvanguardATgmailDOTcom (append "#NEWS#" to Subject)
>>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> If you search on "too" then the rule will not match on just "t" or
>> "o" but it will match on "too" and "tools", "cartoon", and so on. It
>> is a substring match. Testing on "a", "b", and so on will match
>> whenever any of those SINGLE characters appear. Yeah, I know the
>> dialog's title says "word" but that's not accurate. It should be
>> "phrase". Searching on "this old house" will not match unless you
>> have that exact substring. It won't match on individual words, like
>> "old", "house", and "this", so it won't match on "this charming old
>> house". It is a substring search. A single character is also a
>> string. Even the null character is a string. Even a null string
>> (which is not the same as the 1-character NUL character) is called a
>> string although it really means no characters (i.e., it is a
>> zero-length string), but Outlook won't let you test on string length.
>>
>> If you tried it then you know the rule would've worked. If you
>> really need the hand-holding, below is my copy of a "Blank Subject"
>> rule:
>>
>> Apply this rule after the message arrives
>> permanently delete it
>> except if the subject contains 'a' or ... or 'z' or '0' or ... or '9'
>> stop processing more rules
>>
>> No, Outlook doesn't let you specify a range using "...". That would
>> allow simplifying the coding of the rule and make it much shorter
>> than having to specify 36 phrases (or substrings) to search for, and
>> why I mention that some users just test for vowels (they don't get
>> messages where the subject has non-vowel Welch or Jewish words, don't
>> have all numbers, and don't use sentences like "Hmm, Mr. MJB, TV?
>> Tsk, tsk."). The "..." above is just used to indicate that there are
>> more phrases (substrings) in the test condition but obviously you
>> should be able to figure out what the rest should look like.
>>
>> If your e-mail client won't let you compose e-mails with a blank
>> subject to test the rule, go use Yahoo Mail as they will let you
>> compose and send a message with no subject. If your rule permanently
>> deletes the message as mine does, temporarily change it to just
>> deleting the message so you see it get moved into the Deleted Items
>> folder, or add the clause to popup a notify window with a message
>> saying something like, "Message received with blank subject has been
>> deleted."
>>
>> If you don't believe me, just go do a Google search on '+Outlook
>> +"blank subject"' to find many others that use the same solution.
>>
>> --
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Post your replies to the newsgroup. Share with others.
>> E-mail: news.vanguardATgmail.com (append "#NEWS#" to Subject)
>> _________________________________________________________________
>>
>
>
Make sure to disable all other rules to test just the one new rule. It
is probable that you have rules that overlap their test conditions (so
they will affect each other as the rules get OR'ed in the order they are
listed) or you used the stop-clause in a prior rule that prevented the
new rule or any rules thereafter from getting exercised against the
message. Disable all rules except your new one, test it, and then
figure out why it doesn't get exercised by following the flow through
your rules.
-- _________________________________________________________________ Post your replies to the newsgroup. Share with others. E-mail: news.vanguardATgmail.com (append "#NEWS#" to Subject) _________________________________________________________________
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