Message Filters allow you to add automation to your email workflow. When you’re dealing with multiple email accounts and bombarded with messages on a daily basis, filters can help organize, label, mark, and reply to them automatically.

How to create a Message Filter

Creating a message filter is easy. Simply go to Tools | Message Filters, and choose the account to which the filter will apply. Then, click the New... button to create a new filter. The subsequent window should look very familiar to those who have ever created a Smart Playlist in iTunes. Name the filter, choose the search criteria which will narrow down the messages to a select few, and then decide which actions Postbox should perform.

Here is an example of a filter that finds messages sent from Postbox or contains the word Postbox in the subject, and automatically adds a Topic and marks them as a To-Do:

This is how the filter window reads: Match any message that is either from someone using a Postbox email address or mentions Postbox in the title. With those messages, Add the topic “Postbox” and mark them as a “To-Do”.

Now that the filter is created, any messages that come in will be automatically filtered by Postbox. For emails that have already been received, there’s a Run Now button at the bottom of the Message Filters window that will run the filter on the selected folder.

Note: For an explanation of Topics check out this article:

http://support.postbox-inc.com/entries/386683-using-topics

Message Filter Ideas

• Send an automatic message to senders who aren’t in your address book
• Add a “Large Attachment” topic to messages that are larger than 5mb
• Set a High priority for messages sent from your bank or significant other

The possibilities are endless!

Run Filters on Messages

If you'd like to run Message Filters on a particular message, this is now possible in Postbox 3. To do this, first select the message and then go to Tools | Run  Filters on Message. 

Additionally, if you'd like to run filters on a group of messages, select them, and go to Tools | Run Filters on Selected Messages