If you receive mail from a predictable source (mailing list, club mailings, etc), you can divert this mail to another, separate folder in your E-Mail reader for later viewing.

The mail will still be "loaded" off your server's location, but the selected, or "filtered" mail will automatically be moved to another pre-determined folder in your mail reading program, so your main E-mail screen won't be cluttered up, thus potentially missing an important Email. You can set up more than one filter for numerous separate holding folders.

Most browser programs support a "Mail Filter", however, for simplicity, we will show you how to set up a mail filter on Netscape's version. Other versions and brands may be similar, so look for variances and alternatives in setting the filter up.

Open up your mail reading program, this example is the "Netscape" program.

Select the folder Local Mail.

Then make sure that folder is highlighted.

Go up to the menu bar and select File.

Then pull down the menu and click on New Folder.

Now type in the name for the new folder in which all your selected mail will be diverted to.

For this example, we'll type in Mail-List. Your new folder has created under the heading Local Mail. Click OK.

Now select Edit from the Menu bar.

Drop down the menu and click on Message Filters.

A dialog box will appear.

Select the New button.

Where it asks "Filter Name", give a descriptive name for this filter. This case we used the same name as the folder we will divert the mail to... Mail-List.

Select the Match any of the following option. Then you want it to recognize the TO or CC: line in the Email's address. Anything sent TO or CC'd to the address specified will be filtered.

The next box over is what you want it to match. If the TO: matches exactly what you have entered in this box, the filter will know that Email will need to be diverted to the location as you will specify below. If your Emails you wish to automatically sort have been addressed to what you have typed, it will be diverted to the specified folder. Some examples are offered in the photo below.

Select the folder you wish to Move the sorted mail to, which for this example, would be the Folder you just created- named Mail-List. Then click OK.

EXAMPLES OF ADDRESSES
superformance@topica.com
ecbr@egroups.com
w4wda@egroups.com
ebml@bronco.com

Now anytime mail comes in addressed to the name you specified in you filter, the filter will automatically intercept it, and move it to the folder in which you specified, where you can later go to read it at your leisure, without cluttering up your main mail folder screen. Simply go to the folder, and open it up, and your separated mail will be there waiting for you. Create other filters for other mail you wish to automatically separate. Play around with the criteria and settings to makes sure you filter all the intended mail, and not other mail inadvertently falling into a "too vague" of description, you may have setup.