XCLN: Rules in Outlook Cannot Process Substrings in the Subject Line (257960)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Outlook 2000
  • Microsoft Outlook 97 8.01
  • Microsoft Outlook 97 8.02
  • Microsoft Outlook 97 8.03
  • Microsoft Outlook 97 8.04
  • Microsoft Outlook 98
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5
This article was previously published under Q257960

SUMMARY

In Outlook, if you create a rule that processes messages based on a specific search string (such as a word or group of words) in the Subject line, the rule also processes any messages that have a string in the Subject line that contains the search string as a substring.

For example, if you create a rule that process messages based on the presence of the following search string in the Subject line

age

that rule also processes messages that contain the following strings in the Subject line:
  • message
  • ages
  • page
  • agenda
This behavior occurs because the rule looks for the search string "age" (without the quotation marks) and processes a message if it finds that string anywhere in the message Subject line. A rule also does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior is by design.

You can force a rule to look for a specific search string by enclosing the search string in quotation marks. However, the rule treats the quotation marks as part of the search string. For example, if you create a rule that looks for the following search string (with the quotation marks)

"age"

the Subject line of a message must contain the string "age" (with the quotation marks) for the rule to take effect for that message. (A message with a Subject line that contains the string "AGE" also causes the rule to take effect because the rule ignores the case of letters.) In this example, if you receive an e-mail message that has the following string in the Subject line

age

the rule does not process the message because the rule is looking for messages that contain the following strings (with the quotation marks) and any other possible permutations of the search string:
  • "age"
  • "AGE"
Another way to force a rule to look for a specific search string is to use the rich Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications development environment in Outlook 2000 to create a custom rule. However, to do this, you need to do a certain amount of coding and you need to have expertise in Outlook programming.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

253277 XCLN: How to Delete Messages That Have a Blank Subject Line

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:4/28/2005
Keywords:kbinfo KB257960
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