How to Set up a Filter in Yahoo! Mail

If you get a lot of emails, chances are good that it's overwhelming your inbox. The sheer volume of work emails, bills, spam, subscriptions, and notifications can be paralyzing—and that's not even counting those forwarded jokes from Aunt Thelma.

Fortunately, Yahoo! Mail can group incoming emails automatically for you based on criteria you set, moving them into folders you create, into your archives, or even the trash. Here's how to sort all your incoming messages automatically before you even see them.

1. Position the mouse cursor over the settings gear icon, near the window's top right corner. (You can also click the gear icon.)
2. Select Settings from the menu that has shown.
3. Click on More settings from the menu that pops up.
4. Click Filters in the left sidebar
5. Click Add new filters to Your filters.
6. Fill in the form that appears to the right. (See the examples below.)

To edit an existing filter, follow the same procedure, but instead of selecting Add new filters, click on the filter you'd like to change Your filters. Then, simply change the criteria as desired.

You can sort your email in an infinite number of ways. Here are a few common sample filters for mail that's:

• From a certain sender: Enter the person's email address under From, so the line reads From contains sender@example.com; make sure Match case is not checked.
• Sent to one of your alternate addresses: Put that address under To/CC.
• From a mailing list that always arrives with "[List]" in the subject: Enter "[List]" under Subject so the line says Subject contains [List].
• Marked "urgent" in the subject line: Set up the filter as Subject begins with [Urgent].
• Not sent to you as a direct recipient: Make the To/CC line read To/CC does not contain me@yahoo.com.

In all of these cases, you then specify the folder to which you want Yahoo! to move the email.

The procedure is much the same. You'll find the settings under the gear icon ( ​Settings > Filters).