Power Rules Manager User`s Manual
Contents
1. This is because if multiple move rules apply to a single message the message will be moved out of the inbox multiple times creating a copy in each folder even though it says move and is another cause of duplicate emails If you really want to create a copy there is a rule action for that Pressing this button will flag all occurrences of your rules that have the Move this message to folder action but no Stop processing more rules action so that you can examine each occurrence After all the rules that have Move actions but no Stop actions have been flagged the add in offers to automatically add the Stop processing more rules action for you If you opt to do this which is highly recommended then the rules are updated and the grid is refreshed Verify Folders and Contacts Sometimes when rules are imported if folders are deleted or contacts deleted then the rules can get into an error state Clicking this button will help you to find the offending rules and either delete them disable them or otherwise fix them When run this function will flag and select any offending emails Consolidate Rules Perhaps the most useful function of the add in at least to save space in rules is the ability to have the add in analyze your rules looking for those which can be combined into a single rule Take these three rules for example 1 When a message is received if the subject contains weight loss then move it to Junk E mail fo2. an action If the message is an out of office message If the message has a property If the message has a certain sensitivity Nr ML Ps OO TS ES If the message is within a certain size range Rules that have these actions specified cannot be restored If the rule runs a custom action If the rule defers delivery for a number of minutes If the rule clears the message flag If the rule flags the message for follow up If the rule marks the message with a specified importance If the rule marks the message as read If the rule prints the message If the rule runs a script E Ss De NS Es If the rule marks the message with a specified sensitivity E O If the rule has the server reply with a specified message E LA If the rule starts an application LA N If the rule runs a script Eb LA If the rule replies using a template Check Rules Integrity Group The Check Rules Integrity group contains five buttons that can be used to validate your rules When any of the buttons is clicked if there is an offending rule found then the rule is flagged using a red circular exclamation mark If the mouse hovers over this exclamation mark a tooltip reveals more information about the particular rule violation Note that you can click the Clear Violations button at any time to Power Rules Manager Copyright 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 12 reset the grid and that any of the violations are cleared when the gri
3. any time Once you click the Restore button the add in asks you where the XML file is located Navigate to it and the add in will then ask you an important question Do you want to append or replace your existing rules If you replace your existing rules then all your rules will first be deleted then the add in will restore the rules Otherwise the add in will simply append the newly imported rules to your existing rules Note that if you aren t careful that this may result in some duplicates being created but that the Find and Repair Duplicate Rules button can help to mitigate this problem Power Rules Manager Copyright 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 11 During the Restore operation Outlook folders that are not found are automatically created on your behalf One final important note about the Restore operation Although all rules can be backed up not all rules can be restored This is because Outlook limits the types of rules that can be programmatically created Rules that are found in the XML file during a Restore operation that cannot be restored are written to a file FailedRules xml so that you can enter them back in manually using the original Outlook Rules and Alerts wizard The rule types that cannot be restored are broken down into two groups listed below Rules that have these conditions or exceptions cannot be restored If the message is received in a certain date range If the message is flagged for
4. 3 Se Power Rules Manager Sperry E win User s Manual e P H He 3 Configuring the AA eeaeee eei o e eea eei aeiee elec 4 Main Rules Window cccccccnnnncnonnncnnnnnonannnnn nn cnn R RR RRA RRE R RR RR rr rn ASEE E EEEEn nannan nEn 6 Dragelne Droppine REESEN 6 Oseas 6 SU 6 Print Rules oooooooccccccccnnnncononcnnnnncnnnnnnnonnnnnn nn enano R RRE Eee RR RARE RR RR RR RR RR rn nnnnnnnnnnnnnennnnnes 7 Save VL i ies 7 VIEW BY EOS 7 VIEW BY CONTACHS cessacccccscatatscssetataessacetesssanccueasincders E EE EEEE 7 AGO Edit TE 7 Delete Rules ae 9 Move Up Move Down Set Execution Order 9 PIMC BING NOX E 10 TUE 10 Actions Tt 11 EN O O RO OA 11 Identify Repeated Rule Name 13 Find and Repair Duplicate Rules idad 13 Validate Stop ei le Te EE 13 Verify Folders and Contacts occcccnnccccccoonnccnnnnnnccnnonnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnannnnnnnnnns 13 Ree de 13 Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 1 Clear e E e EE 14 Execute All Ruleta AAA AAA AAA a 14 e WU 15 Status Blc eege tdt 16 TUE A 17 Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 2 Welcome Thank you for choosing the Power Rules Manager add in created by Sperry Software This add in allows you to easily manage your rules in Outlook by displaying them all at once in a flexible grid You can get to the grid by clicking on the Power Rules Manager toolbar icon in Outlook Like mos
5. This button performs the same function as the Execute All Rules button except it only executes the rules that are currently selected You can select them by clicking them one at a time manually holding down the Ctrl key while clicking allows you to select multiple rules or by using the Find Find Next buttons being sure to click the Select All Found checkbox first Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 15 Status Bar The status bar area is at the bottom of the grid It displays three items 1 The current status of the add in Because some operations take a long time backup restore or saving the rules when there are many of them this status area will indicate what the add in is doing and when it is ready for the next action 2 The current mailbox more on this in a moment 3 The number of rules The current mailbox has a small pull down arrow next to it This is useful if you have more than one account configured in your Outlook profile Selecting a new mailbox results in the current set of rules being discarded and the new set of rules from that mailbox read in Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 16 Troubleshooting Q I m having trouble and need to start over with installing What can do A Follow these instructions http www sperrysoftware com kb questions 98 I 27m having problems 2C and l need totreinstall my add ins from atcleantstart
6. ally choose to select other rows by holding down the Ctrl key while selecting the other rows Once you ve selected all the rules to move grab the selected rows by left clicking on one of the selected rows while the Ctrl key is held down Then move the mouse to the row you need If you place the mouse cursor just above the header row the one containing the column names the add in will scroll up while you are holding the rows to drop To cause scrolling down move the mouse into the bottom scrollbar area While scrolling if the Shift key is pressed the rows scrolling by will go into high speed mode this is useful in case you have hundreds or even thousands of rules Be sure to click the Save All Rules button to commit any changes Close The Close button saves your grid size assuming you resized it and closes the program It is the same as clicking the red X in the upper right corner of the window Save As The Save As button saves your rules to a file in either plain text comma delimited or Microsoft Excel format It is important to save your Outlook rules in case of error Once the file has been saved depending on which format was selected it can be opened in Notepad or Excel Power Rules Manager Copyright 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 6 Print Rules The Print Rules button presents a print preview display of your rules While you can click the Print button from there to get a hard copy of your rules you can also choose t
7. d sort order is changed by clicking on any of the column headers Identify Repeated Rule Names While it is not against Outlook s naming rules to have rules that have identical names it can be confusing for you while you try to sort out what your rules are doing Pressing this button will flag all rules that have duplicate names Renaming one of the rules will help you to keep your rules organized Keep in mind while you re renaming that short rule names help to save space Find and Repair Duplicate Rules Sometimes when you have a lot of rules duplicate rules can be inadvertently created They can also be created by performing a Restore operation and choosing to append the restored rules to the list of existing rules Having duplicate rules is a primary cause of getting duplicate emails in your Outlook folders Clicking this button will first flag any rows that are completely identical To save space you can delete one of them manually If the mouse hovers over the circular red exclamation mark the mouse tip will reveal the other rule that is identical After all the duplicates have been found and marked the add in offers to delete the duplicates for you After the operation is complete the rules are updated and the grid is refreshed Validate Stop Actions One of the most confusing rule actions is the Stop processing more rules action This action should be in place after every occurrence of the Move this message to folder X action
8. e has the server reply with a specified message E E If the rule starts an application Bb N If the rule runs a script Bb LA If the rule replies using a template Keep in mind that rules can still be created or edited using the Outlook Rules and Alerts wizard then closing and reopening the Power Rules Manager will reflect the newly created rules Delete Rules There are actually two ways to delete rules One method of deleting rules is to simply select the rule then click the delete key on the keyboard A confirmation window will appear then depending on your answer the rule will be deleted and the server will be updated A second method involves using the Delete Rules button You first select one rule or more rules by holding down the Ctrl key while you click on the rules you no longer want Then you click the Delete Rules button A confirmation window will appear you did make backups right and once confirmed the rules will be deleted This method has the advantage that you are only asked to confirm once for a number of rules and the server is only update one time this can be quicker than individually deleting rules Before making changes to rules it is advisable to make backups using the Backup button see below Move Up Move Down Set Execution Order Changing the order of rules processing is simple with these two buttons Simply select a row and then click on the button to move it up or down in the executi
9. ht that line in the editor by selecting it then click the Delete Selected Line button To edit a rule you can highlight a selected row in the grid then click the Edit button or simply double click the rule right from the grid Be aware that only a subset of conditions actions and exceptions are allowed to be created The list of conditions actions and exceptions that can be created is shown when the corresponding buttons are clicked In particular the following conditions and exceptions cannot be created with the add in Rules that need these conditions or exceptions cannot be created with the add in If the message is received in a certain date range If the message is flagged for an action If the message is an out of office message If the message has a property oe A b E If the message has a certain sensitivity Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 8 6 If the message is within a certain size range Rules that need these actions cannot be created with the add in If the rule runs a custom action If the rule defers delivery for a number of minutes If the rule clears the message flag If the rule flags the message for follow up If the rule marks the message with a specified importance If the rule marks the message as read If the rule prints the message If the rule runs a script WD Anau PWN PhP If the rule marks the message with a specified sensitivity E O If the rul
10. is to allow the server side rules to all run first if the client rules ran first then some of the server side rules might not be given a chance to run making it look like the rules are only running sometimes Find Find Next Using these two buttons allows you find all occurrences of the text you type into the box to the right of the Find button After you type in the text move off the field using the tab key or the Enter key If any rule contains your text it will be highlighted If there are no matches a popup window lets you know The fields that are searched in the grid are Order Name Conditions Actions and Exceptions In addition the hidden columns of the View By Folders and View By Contacts buttons are also searched on even if they are not visible The Select All Found checkbox is used to automatically select all rules that have the text in the Find button Selecting rules in this way is useful for say quickly disabling all rules that have a particular folder or selecting rules that involve a particular contact for the Execute Some Rules button see below Replace The Replace button allows you to perform a bulk replace of folders This function makes it easy to replace invalid folders quickly You may find the need to use this function after importing Outlook rules from another machine as Outlook does not build the folder structure on your behalf For more information on importing Outlook rules see our ar
11. lder Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 13 2 When a message is received if the subject contains mortgage then move it to Junk E mail folder 3 When a message is received if the subject contains credit cards then move it to Junk E mail folder The add in finds rules that all have the same action and consolidates them into one 1 Whena message is received if the subject contains weight loss or mortgage or credit cards then move it to Junk E mail folder After the consolidation operation is complete the rules are updated and the grid is refreshed Clear Violations To clear the grid of any and all rule violation markers click this button Whenever the grid is resorted it has the same effect as clicking this button Execute All Rules Clicking this button will bring up a new window un Rules On These Folders Figure 6 Execute Rules Window on Outlook 2013 In this example all the rules will be executed against four folders Inbox Employees Events and Icons and Graphics Note that the Run button must actually be clicked in order to run the rules against these folders The Cancel button will be highlighted once the processing starts to allow you to cancel the operation however there is no Undo ability so be sure to use caution Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 14 Execute Selected Rules
12. n in the window You can resize the window by sliding the mouse to the lower right hand corner then clicking the mouse down to grab the window edge then slide the mouse to resize the window The add in works with your existing Outlook rules To that end some functions of Outlook must still be used in conjunction with the add in For instance to create and edit certain rules you can still use the Outlook Rules and Alerts tool However the add in can be used for the most common rule operations Note that the Power Rules Manager window needs to be closed and reopened to see the changes you make to any rules using Outlook s Rules and Alerts tool Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 3 Configuring the Add in Once the installation is complete you are ready to use the Power Rules Manager add in When you open Outlook you will notice a new button Sperry Software Add ins added to the toolbar So FILE HOME SEND RECEIVE FOLDER VIEW Norton Sperry Software d Sperry Power Rules Software Manager Sperry Software Add Ins Figure 1 Toolbar on Outlook 2013 Clicking this button displays the Sperry Software Add ins configuration screen It is on this screen that basic settings are made to control the functionality of the add in To the right of the Sperry Software button is the Power Rules Manager toolbar button which pulls up the main window for working with the rules Op
13. o save the preview to a file in several different formats as well Save All Rules When editing multiple rules from within the Power Rules Manager you can use the Save All Rules button to save all of your changes at once The button is disabled by default but will become active when you have made at least one change If you try to close the Power Rules Manager window without having saved your changes you will receive a warning asking if you would like to save before closing View By Folders This button will open two new columns in the grid One of the columns will be just the name of any Outlook folder in the rule Short Folder Names and the other will be the full pathname of the Outlook folder Long Folder Names The latter is useful for resolving any ambiguity when it comes to folder names especially when two folders are allowed to have the same name in Outlook The Short Folder Names column is useful because if you sort on that column by clicking on the column header you can quickly see which rules involve that Outlook folder This can be handy when you are viewing an email and wondering how that email came to be in that folder This view can also be useful to manually consolidate your rules involving the same folders if there are several rules that move emails to a given folder they can usually be combined since the conditions of Outlook rules are OR ed together However note that there is a button on the Actions tab called Cons
14. olidate Rules which will perform this action for you View By Contacts This button is similar to the View By Folders except that when clicked it will reveal a new column that displays any contacts associated with the rule By clicking on the header you can sort by the list to see which rules involve particular people This can be useful for cleaning up your rules if the person is no longer employed at your firm or otherwise involved in your daily email operations You can also see if there are multiple rules involving the same contacts so that those rules can be coalesced into a single rule saving space Add Edit Rules The Power Rules Manager add in allows you to create and or edit rules To add a new rule simply click the Add button You will be asked if the rule you want to create applies to incoming emails or to outgoing emails Once you answer that question you will be presented with a window that looks similar to this Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 7 Rule Name Enabled Execution Order Rule Description When a message is received Rule runs on server Figure 4 Add Edit Rule Window on Outlook 2013 The rule name is the next rule in the execution order but should be changed to something more meaningful and it is enabled by default The add in then waits for you to add a condition an action or an exception If you wish to delete a condition action or exception simply highlig
15. on order Moving a rule up in the execution order makes the rule run before any of the rules that appear below it Once the rule order is set the Set Execution Order needs to be clicked in order to update the server with the new rule order Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 9 Similar to the Delete Rules button above changing the rule order can also be done by simply double clicking on any row to edit the rule The execution order can be changed in the rule edit window This can be handy for example if you have dozens of rules and a client side rule that is near the top of the execution order and you want to move it near the bottom it would take too long to repeatedly click the Move Down button The Set Execution Order button can be used to change to change the order of execution for all your rules at once For instance to run your rules in alphabetical order simply click on the Name column header to sort your rules alphabetically then click on the Set Execution Order Once you click on the button the server is updated and the grid refreshes with all your rules in the new order One note about this powerful feature as documented in our tips article on the website you probably want to make sure that all your server side rules run first and reorder your Outlook rules to make the client side rules run last While this tip doesn t help you to save space it does help to make sure all your rules run This
16. t grids clicking on a column header causes the grid to sort by that column In addition you can start typing a few keys to quickly go to the row or rule that contains the keys you started typing One of the first things that should be done is to save a copy of your rules in the case of an error There are three ways to do this either via the Backup button in the toolbar the Save As button in the toolbar or via the traditional method of using Outlook Rules and Alerts to save an RWZ file Using the Save As allows you to see and read all the rules but it cannot be used to restore your rules other than manually typing them back in Using the RWZ technique does not allow you to see the rules however it can be used to restore your rules so that you can effectively start over Using the Backup button allows you to both see the rules the rules are written to an XML file and to be able to restore them using the Restore button One of these techniques or all of them should be used to backup your rules before starting When the grid is first displayed it shows all the rules in the order of their execution In addition at the bottom it shows the status of the program which mailbox s rules are being examined and how many rules you have You can double click on any row to edit a rule and rules can dragged and dropped in the usual manner Note that the entire window is resizable so that more of the rules can be show
17. tHow dotl do this 3F Q The Sperry Software Add ins button is not visible A Run the add in Reset tool The add in reset tool among others can be downloaded from http www sperrysoftware com outlook tools as Q How can we contact you for more help A For help on more in depth issues check out our Knowledge Base Power Rules Manager Copyright O 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 17
18. ticle at http www SperrySoftware com Outlook How to import Outlook rules asp Power Rules Manager Copyright 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 10 Actions Tab Figure 5 Actions Tab on Outlook 2013 Backup Restore Making a backup is quick and simple Click the button and the add in asks you where to save your rules The rules are saved in standard XML format meaning they are readable by both humans and computers This can be convenient so that after you save the file you can edit the rules make changes then perform a Restore operation with the updated changes Note that by default XML files display in a read only browser but to edit one you must right click and select Edit from Windows Explorer where it will be brought up in Notepad so that you can make changes as necessary To use the Restore button you must have created at least one backup at some point in the past By default one backup copy of your rules is created for you each day you run the add in The automatic backup is held in your Documents Sperry Software folder and has a naming convention of Rules Backup YYYY MM DD where YYYY is the four digit year MM is the two digit month and DD is the two digit day of the month This automatic backup is only performed once per day so that if the add in detects that it has already written the file that day then another is not created until the next day To be clear you can always create a backup at
19. tions Installed Add Ins Add In Configuration ame Options ES Power Rules Manager C Make searches case sensitive C Display full paths of the Outlook folders when possible Clean Rules Click the below button to fix broken rules that may be preventing the add in from operating properly Fix Broken Rules Figure 2 Configuration Window on Outlook 2013 Power Rules Manager Copyright 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 4 e The first option controls whether or not the Find button searches are case sensitive or not By default they are not case sensitive e The second option controls whether full Outlook folder paths are displayed whenever an Outlook folder name appears in the rules usually in the Actions column By default short names i e no full Outlook paths are used since clicking on the View By Folder toggle button will show both the full long path names and the short names e The Fix Broken Rules button will scan your rules for any broken ones that may be causing the plugin to not operate properly Broken rules will be removed Power Rules Manager Copyright 2012 2014 Sperry Software Inc Page 5 Main Rules Window Figure 3 Main Rules Window Outlook 2013 Version This is a screenshot of the main Power Rules Manager window Dragging Dropping Rules The rules can be dragged and dropped To do this begin by selecting a rule with a single left mouse click You can option
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