Create a New Rule

Applies to: Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu

As an administrator, you can use transport rules to control the flow of e-mail messages in your organization. For example, you may want to manage or monitor e-mail sent to outside organizations or to prevent e-mail with specific words from circulating inside your organization. You can also create a disclaimer that will be displayed at the bottom of all e-mail messages sent from your organization.

A rule consists of the following parts:

• Conditions identify the messages you want the rule to apply to. For example, all messages sent to chris@contoso.edu.
• Actions specify what you want to do to the messages identified by the conditions. For example, append a disclaimer to the message.
• Exceptions override conditions and prevent the rule from acting on specific messages. For example, if the condition specifies all messages sent to chris@contoso.edu, you could specify an exception for messages sent to chris@contoso.edu by michelle@contoso.edu.

Basic rules and expanded rules

When you select Manage My Organization > Mail Control > Rules > New to create a new rule, you have two options. If you want to create a basic rule with one condition and one action, just click New, select a condition and action, and then click Save. If you want to create a more complex or "expanded" rule, with additional conditions, actions, or exceptions, click More Options.

• Create a basic rule   If you don't click More Options, the available conditions and actions are limited to the most commonly-used conditions and actions. You can't specify any exceptions, and you can't customize the name of the rule.
• Create an expanded rule    If you click More Options, you can create a rule with multiple conditions and multiple actions, and you can select any condition or action. Also, you can specify exceptions and customize the name of the rule. After you click More Options, the button goes away and you can't return to the basic rules interface without closing the New Rule window and starting over.

Create a basic rule

1. Select Manage My Organization > Mail Control > Rules > New.

2. Identify the messages you want the rule to apply to by selecting a condition from the * If... drop-down list.

   * If…	Use this to specify…
   The sender is…	Who sends the message.
   The recipient is…	Who receives the message.
   The sender is a member of…	Whether the message is sent by a member of the specified group.
   The sender is in the scope of…	Whether the message is sent from inside or outside your organization.
   The recipient is in the scope of…	Whether the message recipient is inside or outside your organization.
   The recipient is a member of…	Whether the message recipient is a member of the specified group.
   The subject or body includes…	Messages with specific words.
   The sender address includes…	Messages received from specific domains or senders.
   The recipient address includes…	Messages sent to specific domains or recipients.
   Any attachment content includes...	Words or phrases found in supported attachment types. For a list of supported attachment types, see "Default Filters" in Default Filters for Exchange Search. You can't modify the list of supported attachment types in a cloud-based organization.
   [Apply to all messages]	That the action is applied to all messages.

   Note   By default, the name of a basic rule is automatically generated from the condition. If you already have rules that start with the same condition, sequential numbers are automatically appended to the rule name to avoid duplicates.

3. Specify what you want the rule to do to those messages by selecting an action from the * Do the following... drop-down list.

   * Do the following…	Use this to…
   Forward the message for approval to…	Select one or more recipients to approve or reject the message for delivery. For more information, see Approve or Reject Messages Sent to a Group.
   Redirect the message to…	Redirect the message to anyone in the address book.
   Reject the message and include the explanation…	Create a customized message that will be returned to the sender along with the rejected message. For example, for a rule that filters on specific inappropriate words, you can explain that your organization doesn't accept messages that contain inappropriate words.
   Delete the message without notifying anyone	Delete the message without notifying the recipient or sender.
   Bcc the message to…	Add one or more e-mail recipients to the Bcc addresses on the message. For example, you might use this to monitor messages that can't be moderated by using message approval on a group.
   Append a disclaimer to the message…	Insert text that appears at the end of the message body. For example, you could apply the following disclaimer to all messages: "This message may contain sensitive or confidential material and is for the intended recipients only."

   Note   For both basic and expanded rules, when you are asked to select users or groups, the address book opens. Double-click to select the user or group and then click OK.

4. When you're finished, click Save.

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Create an expanded rule

1. Select Manage My Organization > Mail Control > Rules > New.
2. Click More Options.
3. Identify the messages you want the rule to apply to by selecting a condition from the * If....drop-down list. For a complete list of the available conditions, see Conditions and Exceptions for Transport Rules.
4. To add more conditions, click Add Condition. In order for the rule to act on a particular message, the message must satisfy all the conditions you specify. After you use a condition, you can't add the same condition to the rule again. If you specify the [Apply to all messages] condition, you can't add any more conditions to the rule. To remove a condition, click .
5. Specify what you want the rule to do to those messages by selecting an action from the * Do the following... drop-down list. For a complete list of available actions, see Actions for Transport Rules.
6. To add more actions, click Add Action. After you use an action, you can't add the same action to the rule again. To remove an action, click .
7. To add exceptions to the rule, click Add Exception. To prevent the rule from acting on a specific message, that message must satisfy only one of the exceptions you specify, not all the exceptions. After you use an exception, you can't add the same exception to the rule again. To remove an exception, click . For a complete list of the available exceptions, see Conditions and Exceptions for Transport Rules.
   Note   The available conditions and exceptions are exactly the same. However, conditions identify messages you want the rule to apply to, while exceptions exclude messages you don't want the rule to apply to.
8. If you want to override the default name of the rule, in the Name of rule field, type the name you want to use. The name must be unique in your organization.
9. When you're finished, click Save.