Creating a Microsoft Outlook Rule for M-Files

With Microsoft Outlook rules, you can automate saving specific kinds of email messages to M-Files on the basis of, for example, the sender, subject, or recipient of a message. For example, you can specify that all proposal messages that you send are saved to M-Files on the basis that the subject field contains the word proposal.

Note: These instructions are for Microsoft Outlook 365. If you use a different version of Microsoft Outlook, there can be minor differences in how rules are created.

To create a Microsoft Outlook rule for M-Files:

  1. Open Microsoft Outlook and select an email message that represents the type of message for which you want to create a rule.
    Example:You can select the message and create the rule on the basis of, for example, the sender of the message, text in the subject field, or the recipient of the message.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Move section, click Rules and the select Create Rule.
    Result:The Create Rule dialog is opened.
  3. Click Advanced Options.
    Result:The Rules Wizard dialog is opened.
  4. Check the condition or conditions that an email message must meet for this rule to be applied.
    Example:To create a rule that applies to messages that are sent by the selected sender, check the from <sender> check box.
  5. Optional: Click an underlined value in the rule description field to edit the rule condition.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Check the move a copy to the specified folder check box.
    You can also move the messages themselves directly to M-Files so that they are deleted from Microsoft Outlook when they are moved. The best practice normally is to move a copy of the message to M-Files. With this method, the actual message remains in the original folder, such as the inbox or outbox folder.
  8. Click specified in the rule description field.
    Result:The Rules and Alerts dialog is opened.
  9. Expand the M-Files node and then select the vault to which you want to move copies of messages that match this rule.
  10. Click OK to close the Rules and Alerts dialog and then click Next.
  11. Optional: To make exceptions to this rule, check any exception check box that you want to be applied and edit the exception in the rule description field.
  12. Click Next.
  13. In the text field, enter a descriptive name for the rule.
  14. Check the Run this rule now on messages already in and Turn on this rule check boxes and click Finish.
The email messages in Microsoft Outlook that match the rule that you specified are moved automatically to the selected vault in M-Files.
Note: If Microsoft Outlook is not open when you receive a message that matches this rule and would therefore be automatically saved to M-Files, M-Files will suggest that you Save pending messages now when Microsoft Outlook is opened the next time.