Conditions and Exceptions for Transport Rules
Applies to: Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu
Rules, also known as transport rules control the flow of e-mail messages in an organization. Conditions identify the messages you want the rule to apply to, and exceptions override the conditions and prevent the rule from acting on particular messages.
By default, when you create a new rule, you select from an abbreviated list of the most commonly-used conditions, and you don't specify any exceptions. However, if you click More Options, you see the complete list of conditions and exceptions, and you can specify multiple conditions and exceptions.
The available conditions and exceptions are exactly the same. However, conditions identify messages you want the rule to apply to, and exceptions exclude messages you don't want the rule to apply to.
Let's take a look at all the conditions and exceptions you can apply to a new rule or an existing rule at Manage My Organization > Mail Control > Rules.
Senders |
Attachments |
Sender and recipient relationships |
Recipients |
Message properties |
Message headers |
Message subject or body |
To and Cc fields |
Apply to all messages |
Note Several of the conditions and exceptions search for text in the various components of an e-mail message. These text searches operate as follows:
- If the condition or exception contains the phrase "includes any of these words", the search looks for the specified text as typed. The search isn't case-sensitive, and the text can be surrounded by spaces and punctuation marks.
For example, "contoso" matches " Contoso.". However, if the text is surrounded by other characters, it isn't considered a match. For example, "contoso" doesn't match "acontoso" or "contosob". Also, the asterisk ( * ) is treated as a literal character and isn't used as a wildcard character. - If the condition or exception contains the phrase "matches these text patterns", the search uses a regular expression to look for text. A regular expression can look for normal text characters as typed, and you can use special characters to look for designated types of text. For example, "\d" matches any digit from 0 to 9. To learn more, see Regular Expressions in Transport Rules.
Senders
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
The sender... is this person |
Specify the message sender from the shared address book. |
The sender... is external/internal |
Specify whether the sender is inside or outside the organization. A sender is inside the organization if either of the following conditions is true:
A sender is outside the organization if any of the following conditions is true:
|
The sender... is a member of this group |
Specify the distribution group that the sender is a member of. |
The sender... address includes any of these words |
Specify text values to match in the sender's e-mail address. |
The sender... address matches any of these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in the sender's e-mail address using regular expressions. |
The sender... is in a recipient's supervision list |
This option is available in Live@edu organizations only. The sender is defined in a supervision list entry on a recipient's mailbox. Supervision list entries perform the following functions:
For more information, see Supervision Policies. |
The sender... has specific properties containing any of these words |
Specify the properties you want to search and the text values you want to find. The text values can appear anywhere in the specified property. You must select the properties from a predefined list. Note This condition or exception is useful only for senders that appear in the shared address book. |
The sender... has specific properties matching these text patterns |
Specify the properties you want to search, and the text patterns you want to find. You specify the text patterns using regular expressions. This condition or exception is useful only for senders that appear in the shared address book. |
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Recipients
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
The recipient... is this person |
Specify the message recipient from the shared address book. |
The recipient... is external/internal |
Specify whether the recipient is inside or outside the organization. A recipient is inside the organization if either of the following conditions is true:
A recipient is outside the organization if any of the following conditions is true:
You can also specify whether the recipient is in an external partner organization. An external partner organization is a domain that's been configured for Domain Secure security. Note Domain Secure security is only available in on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 organizations. Cloud-based organizations may see the external partner organization options, but rules based on those options won't work. |
The recipient... is a member of this group |
Specify the group that the recipient is a member of. |
The recipient... address includes any of these words |
Specify the text values to match in the recipient's e-mail address. |
The recipient... address matches any of these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in the recipient's e-mail address using regular expressions. |
The recipient... is in the sender's supervision list |
This option is available in Live@edu organizations only. The recipient is defined in a supervision list entry on the sender's mailbox. Supervision list entries perform the following functions:
For more information, see Supervision Policies. |
The recipient... has specific properties containing any of these words |
Specify the properties you want to search, and the text values you want to find. You must select the properties from a predefined list. Note This condition or exception is useful only for recipients that appear in the shared address book. |
The recipient... has specific properties matching these text patterns |
Specify the properties you want to search, and the text patterns you want to find. You specify the text patterns using regular expressions. This condition or exception is useful only for recipients that appear in the address book. |
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Message subject or body
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
The subject or body... subject or body includes any of these words |
Specify the text values to match in the message subject or body. |
The subject or body... subject or body matches these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in the message subject or body using regular expressions. |
The subject or body... subject includes any of these words |
Specify the text values to match in the message subject only. |
The subject or body... subject matches these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in the message subject only using regular expressions. |
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Attachments
These conditions or exceptions examine attached files in messages. When you search for the file name or size of the attachments, all attachments are included in the search.
When you search the content of the attachments, only supported attachment types are included in the search. For a list of supported attachment types, see "Default Filters" in Default Filters for Exchange Search.
Note You can't modify the list of supported attachment types in a cloud-based organization.
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
Any attachment... content includes any of these words |
Specify the text values to match in supported attachment types. |
Any attachment... content matches these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in supported attachment types using regular expressions. |
Any attachment... content can't be inspected |
The content of an attachment can't be inspected if the attachment type isn't supported. |
Any attachment... file name matches these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in any attachment file name using regular expressions. |
Any attachment... is equal to or larger than |
Specifies a maximum size for any attachment. |
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Message properties
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
The message properties... include the message type |
From the list, select the message type:
|
The message properties... include this classification |
Select the message classification that's been applied to the message. For more information, see Understanding Message Classifications. |
The message properties... is lacking any classification |
Specify that no message classification has been applied to the message. |
The message properties... include an SCL equal to or greater than |
Select the maximum acceptable SCL that's been applied to the message. The SCL rating is a number between 0 and 9. A higher SCL rating indicates that a message is more likely to be spam. |
The message properties include the importance level |
From the list, select the importance level that's been applied to the message:
|
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To and Cc fields
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
The message... To field contains this person |
Select the person that appears in the To field from the address book. |
The message... To field contains a member of this group |
Select the group that the person in the To field is a member of. |
The message... Cc field contains this person |
Select the person that appears in the Cc field from the address book. |
The message... Cc field contains a member of this group |
Select the group that the person in the Cc field is a member of. |
The message... To or Cc fields contain this person |
Select the person that appears in the To or Cc fields from the address book. |
The message... To or Cc fields contain a member of this group |
Select the group that the person in the To or Cc fields is a member of. |
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Sender and recipient relationships
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
The sender and the recipient... The sender's management relationship to a recipient is |
Select from the following:
|
The sender and the recipient... The message is between members of these groups |
A member of one specified group sends a message to a member of another specified group. The members of the two groups can be the message sender or the message recipient. |
The sender or recipient... The sender or recipient manager is this person |
Select from the following:
|
The sender and the recipient... The sender and recipient property compares as |
Select the properties of the sender and the recipient you want to compare and decide if you want the property values to match. You select the properties from a predefined list. The result can be equals or does not equal. For example, you can set the condition or exception to be: "The Department value of the sender and the recipient must be equal" or "The CustomAttribute1 value of the sender and the recipient must not be equal". |
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Message headers
The message header is a collection of required and optional header fields in the message. Examples of header fields are To, From, Cc, and Bcc. Official header fields are defined in RFC 2822. Unofficial header fields start with "X-" and are known as X-headers.
Condition or exception | Description |
---|---|
A message header... includes any of these words |
Specify the text values to match in the message header. You specify the header field name and the text value you want to match. |
A message header... matches these text patterns |
Specify the text patterns to match in the message header using regular expressions. You specify the header field name and the text value you want to match. |
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Apply to all messages
[Apply to all messages] is only available as a condition, not an exception. If you select [Apply to all messages], you can't specify any other conditions.
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