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Edited by Ibbocaj, Anna, ConjugatedDiene, Krystle and 2 others

Three Parts:Getting to the "Filters" MenuAdding a Forwarding AddressAdding a Filter

Email filters are great ways to save you time. They can do things for you automatically. Forwarding filters automatically forward emails if they have certain keywords or if they come from a certain sender. If you have been wanting to set up a forwarding filter but you haven't known where to start, you've come to the right place.

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Part 1 of 3: Getting to the "Filters" Menu

  1. Gmail login.JPG
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    Log in to Gmail
    • Sign into your Gmail account. Go to mail.google.com and click "sign in." Then type in your username and password and click the bar that says "sign in."
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  2. Settings123.jpg
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    Go to "settings". Click on the gear in the top right-hand corner of screen and click "settings" in the drop-down menu.
  3. Forwarding and pop.JPG
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    Click on the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab at the top of the screen.

Part 2 of 3: Adding a Forwarding Address

  1. Add forwading address.JPG
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    Click "Add a Forwarding Address"
  2. 2
    Type in the address of the email account you want your filter to forward to and click "Next." Then log into your that email account, view the confirmation email, and click the link.
Forwardingaddress.JPG

Part 3 of 3: Adding a Filter

  1. Filters.JPG
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    Click on "Filters" at the top of the screen.
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    Click on "Create a New Filter." It will be at the top of the page but at the bottom of the "Filters" menu.
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    Fill out the options. Now that you have made it to the drop-down menu, it's time to fill it out. There are multiple ways to fill it out, depending on what you want your filter to do. Here is what you do in the different fields of the drop-down menu:
    • From - In the "From" box, you can put an email address or a contact name. If you want to make a filter based on who the sender of the email is, then fill in this box (for example: If you want to forward every email you receive from the email address [email protected], type that email address into this box).
    • To - If you want to make a filter based on who the recipients of the email are, then fill in this box (example: if you want to forward every email that has your friend Andrew as a recipient).
    • Subject - Fill in this box if you want to make a filter based on the subject of the email (example: you would fill in this box if you wanted to forward every email that had a subject line of "IMPORTANT: REPLY ASAP" you would type that in this box).
    • Has the words - Fill in this box if you want to filter every email that has certain words in it (example: you would fill in this box if you wanted to forward every email that had the words "please reply soon" in it you would type that in this box".
    • Doesn't have - Fill in this box if you want to filter every email that doesn't have certain words in it (for example: you would fill in this box if yo wanted to forward every email that doesn't include the word "sincerely").
    • Has attachment - Check this box if you want to filter messages that have attachments (example: If you were to check this box than every email with a picture attached to it would be forwarded).
    • Don't include chats - Check this box if you do not want chat messages to be filtered by your filter. Check this box if you don't want to mix your chat messages with your emails.
    • Size - Fill out this section if you want to filters messages that are a certain size. By filling out this section, you could forward all emails that are too big for you to read personally (which might be the case if you are setting up a filter for business emails) to a different email account that you have someone else manage for you.
  4. Create filter with search.JPG
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    After filling out your desired fields in this drop-down menu, click "Create filter with this search" to move on to the next drop-down menu.
  5. Forward it.JPG
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    Check the box that says "Forward it to" then select the address you wish to forward your emails to.
  6. Create filter.JPG
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    Click "Create filter"
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Tips

  • You will need a Gmail account before you can create a filter in Gmail. Make sure you have one. If you don't have one, go set up a Gmail account before following this tutorial.
  • Filters are meant to be convenient. If setting up a filter will not make you more efficient or will end up being inconvenient, please do not set up the filter. That would defeat the purpose!
  • Make sure you type in all email addresses exactly correct. If any email address is incorrect in any way, your filter will not work.
  • If a filter is not working the way you would like it to, try deleting the filter and making a new one. You may have made a mistake when you first made the filter.
  • If you want to set up a filter that does something different than forwarding a message, choose an option other than "Forward it" in the second drop down menu.
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Recent edits by: Maluniu, Krystle, ConjugatedDiene

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