to create a special filter, you must decide whether you want to ignore or retrieve certain e-mail items. then, based on that decision, you must tell your organizer what it needs to look for in the to:, from:, and subj: fields to single out those e-mail items.
to access the special filter settings:
■ tap the filter box in the hotsync options dialog box.
ignoring or receiving e-mail
the first step in establishing a special filter is to determine whether you want to ignore or retrieve e-mail that matches the information you specify.
to define whether to ignore or receive e-mail:
■ tap the pick list in the center of the hotsync options dialog box and select one of the following settings:
ignore messages containing
tells your organizer to exclude the e-mail items that meet the criteria you define and download all other e-mail items during synchronization. in general, this filter downloads more e-mail during synchronization because it blocks only one defined subset of e-mail.
retrieve only msgs containing
tells your organizer to include only the e-mail items that meet the criteria you define and to ignore all other e-mail items during synchronization. this filter has the potential to block more e-mail during synchronization because it downloads only one subset of e-mail.
defining filter strings
e-mail items are filtered based on the information contained in their to:, from:, and subj: fields. the information that defines what your organizer is looking for is called a filter string. you create a filter string by listing the words you want your organizer to find and separating them with either a comma or a space. each word in the filter string is joined by an implicit or, so you do not need to enter logical connectors like and or or.
to create a more complex filter, you can define filter strings for the to:, from:, and subj: fields simultaneously. your organizer joins the filter strings for these fields using an implicit and; once again, you do not need to add the logical connector. your organizer does that for you.
for example, suppose you want to receive only e-mail items from john smith (jsmith@aol.com) or jack jones (jjones@aol.com) concerning the apollo project. you would create the following filter strings:
in the to: field: jsmith@aol.com, jjones@aol.com
in the subj: field: apollo project
your organizer interprets this as, "accept e-mail items about the apollo project from john smith or jack jones. do not accept e-mail items from other people. do not accept e-mail items from john or jack about any other subject."
when you define a string, note that your organizer searches for any instance of that sequence of characters. for example, if you create a filter that retrieves only e-mail items containing the string "info," your organizer considers "info," "rainforest" and "kinfolk" appropriate matches.
to define a filter string:
1. tap a header field in the hotsync options dialog box.
2. enter your filter string, using commas or spaces to separate the words. do not add connectors, such as and or or, between words in a string.
3. if your string exceeds the length of the field, tap the name of the field to display the notes screen for that header field. for more information about header field notes screens, see "creating e-mail items" earlier in this chapter.
4. tap done to return to the hotsync options dialog box.
5. tap ok.
high-priority e-mail
the retrieve all high priority setting lets you retrieve e-mail items marked high-priority, even if those items would have been blocked by a defined filter.
to retrieve high-priority e-mail items:
1. tap the filter box in the hotsync options dialog box.
2. tap the retrieve all high priority check box to select it.
3. tap ok.
this setting is applicable only if your e-mail application has the capacity to flag high-priority e-mail items.