The Edit User → Message Rules tab can be used to create/edit rules which are processed when messages arrive in a User's mailbox.

They can be used to copy messages, mark them as read, delete them, etc

VPOP3 will process Message Rules in the order they appear in the list. If you want to change the order of the rules, you can drag & drop them into the correct order. Usually when VPOP3 has processed a rule, it will go on to check further rules, but you can use the Stop Processing after this rule 'Action' to make VPOP3 stop after processing a matched rule.

To add a new Message Rule, press the Add Rule button. To edit a rule, double-click on it in the rule list.

The Rule Name is simply a name you want to use to refer to the rule

The Conditions section allows you to set conditions which determine whether the rule will apply. You can create as many conditions as you want for each rule. By default all the conditions need to match for the rule to apply, but you can clear the All conditions need to match checkbox near the bottom of the window to make it so that only one condition needs to match for the rule to apply.

You cannot have a mixture of 'AND' and 'OR' conditions when creating a rule, it must be set to either 'ALL' or 'ANY' conditions matching.

The Field column sets the data to look at. Some available options are visible in the drop-down list, but you can also type any header field name in there which you wish.

The I column says whether the condition should be case insensitive or case sensitive. If the I checkbox is checked, then the condition will be tested in a case-insensitive way - so checking for 'Dog' will match 'dog', 'DOG', 'dOg', etc. If the I checkbox is not checked, then the condition will be tested in a case-sensitive way, so 'Dog' will only match 'Dog', not 'dog', 'DOG', etc.

The N column indicates whether the condition will be 'inverted'. So if you have a contains check, with the N box checked, the condition will become a does not contain condition

The Match Type column indicates the way in which the Data field is compared to the message header field data

The Actions section lets you specify what will happen if the conditions match

Available actions are:

• Stop Processing after this rule - VPOP3 will not process further rules after finishing processing this rule
• Flag Message - the incoming message will be 'flagged' (or marked with a 'star' if that's how your email client displays flagged messages)
• Delete - the message will be deleted
• Quarantine - the message will be quarantined
• Mark Read - the message will be marked as read
• Add Keyword - an IMAP4 keyword will be added to the message. How this is displayed in your email client will depend on the email client you are using, and how it handles IMAP4 keywords
• Copy to Folder - this will copy the incoming message to the specified folder as well as the Inbox
• Move to Folder - this will move the incoming message to the specified folder instead of to the Inbox
• Forward to - this will forward a copy of the message to the specified email address
• Set Forward Sender Addr - this will set the sender address of any forwarded messages to the specified address
• Modify Headers - this will modify the headers in a custom way. E.g. to add a header 'X-MyData: 1' you would type that into the 'Data' box

Message Rules only apply to messages arriving in a user's mailbox, but it can differentiate between incoming messages, messages from other local users, and messages sent by VPOP3 itself. Choose the Incoming, Local andSystem options respectively for these types of messages

To delete a Message Rule, select the rule, and press the Delete Rule button