Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
VIPs and Notifications in Rules
Two features of rules (one condition and one action) can work together in useful ways:
•
Sender Is VIP:
This is a condition that rules can check for. When the
sender is in your current list of VIPs, the condition is triggered. Unfortu-
nately, there's no way to specify
[Sender Is Not VIP]
, so you can't, for
example, send a canned reply only to people who aren't VIPs.
•
Send Notification:
If you don't already use notifications for all your in-
coming messages, this action is a handy way to make sure only messages
matching special criteria appear as notifications. One of those criteria, of
course, could be
[Sender Is VIP]
—giving you special notifications for VIP
senders.
Rule Examples
One of the most common uses for rules is to process repetitive messages. If you find yourself
filing, flagging, or deleting a certain type of message at least once a week, you can save
time and effort by setting up a rule to do it for you. Examples are mailing lists, utility bills,
bank statements, newsletters, travel discount offers, and jokes forwarded by friends or fam-
ily members.
Here are a few rules of this type I've used:
TidBITS issues:
If Any of the following conditions are met:
[From] [Contains] editors@tidbits.com
Perform the following actions:
[Move Message] to mailbox: [Lists]
Any public Apple mailing list:
If Any of the following conditions are met:
[From] [Contains] @lists.apple.com
[Cc] [Contains] @lists.apple.com
Perform the following actions:
