The Inbox Rule Manager allows you to define a series of 'rules' to automatically send an SMS message.





To open the Inbox Rule Manager, go to the outlook menu and select Inbox Rules... On the screen will appear a series of options to enable you to create New rules, Edit rules, Delete rules, Enable rules, Disable rules and change rule priorities.

At the bottom of the screen there is a description of each rule. Clicking on a rule will display its function.


Creating a new rule

Selecting New will open the Inbox Rule Editor. This allows you to define the criteria for your rule and the trigger for your SMS message.

To better understand this function, it's useful to step through our example:

Rule objective: Send an SMS when payment is received from PayPal.

. Step 1 - For reference reasons, each rule needs a description. In the Name
field we have chosen enter the name 'PayPal Payment'.





. Step 2 - To trigger the rule and activate the despatch of an SMS, you need to
define a single or series of keywords. These keywords are not case sensitive
and can be partial words. This allows you to be very specific or somewhat
generalised. By entering the keywords 'Notification of Payment Received'
in the Subject field we are identifying the standard subject description used
in each PayPal payment advice. To be more specific, you can enter additional
keywords that might be associated with the body of your email. For this
example I have chosen to enter the keywords 'Power of Messaging Online
Store'.

. Step 3 - The next step is to inform the Rule Manager what parts of the e-mail
you would like to be sent as an SMS. We have included the options to notify
you of the Sender, the Intended Recipient, the Subject, the Body of your e-mail
and the Date/Time stamp. You are able to select one or all of these options.
For this example, we have elected to receive the name of the Sender, the
Subject line and the Date/Time stamp. This typically represents a single SMS.
Had we elected to include the e-mail body content as an SMS, we would be
wise to impose a limit on the number of characters to be sent. This is the option
Number of SMSs to limit this notification to. Each additional SMS
increases the count by 160 characters.

. Step 4 - As a final step, you should define who you would like the SMS sent to.
Selecting Send it to me sends the SMS to my default mobile phone. If you
would like someone else to receive the SMS, enter their number in the space
provided.

. Step 5 - Save the rule we have created by clicking OK


Our new rule

You should now have a new rule called 'PayPal Payment'. This rule will automatically sent an SMS whenever you receive an e-mail with the Subject line 'Notification of Payment Received' with the body of the e-mail containing the words 'Power of Messaging Online Store'.

Hint: To receive an SMS based on your rule definitions, Outlook/Outlook Express needs to be active, you need to be connected to the Internet and have a credit balance in your SMS account.


Managing rules

Individual rules can be prioritised. Each incoming e-mail can only trigger one rule event. Effectively, the rule manager will step through each of your rules until a criteria is matched. After a criteria has been matched against an incoming e-mail, all the remaining rules are ignored.

For this reason, it is important to prioritise your rules. On the Inbox Rules screen the options Move Up and Move Down allow you to highlight individual rules and prioritise them accordingly.

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