Eudora Stationery and Filters

Eudora Stationery and Filters
Eudora Tip #100/26-Sept-2001

In recent Tips I’ve talked about using Stationery. Tips 25 to 31 talked about Filters and how to use them. Now let’s see how to combine the two.

Suppose I send out a party invitation. In it I mention that it can be a bit tricky to find my house and people can email me for directions. I could just receive the emails and write out instructions, or I can be smart and save the directions as stationery and then manually send the stationery message to those enquiring.

Or, to save work, I could tell people to email me with a specific word or phrase in the subject line and use that to trigger a filter which will automatically send out my stationery file.

First set up the Stationery file (Tip 48)—I’ll call my example “Directions”.

Next set up the filter (Eudora Tip 25). Set it to work like this:

Match incoming—Subject Is—[keyword]—Actions: Reply With [stationery] Directions.

In place of [keyword] above, type in a carefully chosen key word or phrase. This is the tricky bit as you don’t want to fire off directions to assorted people who email you just because they happen to have used the word you chose.

Avoid common words and try to find something unique. That’s one reason a phrase is better than a single word. For my example I’ll use “How do I reach Miraz’s house?” (without the quotes).

Next tell your friends that if they need directions they can send you a blank email with the exact phrase: How do I reach Miraz’s house? in the Subject line.

Here’s what happens: you check your email, the filter catches the messages which use your key phrase in the subject line and automatically creates a reply to each message using your stationery file. That reply is queued up in your Out box ready to be sent next time your messages are sent.

COMING SOON: Where’s my Message?

SPECIAL NOTE: This is the 100th issue of Eudora Tips, which began just two years ago, so it’s time to celebrate. Eudora Tips is totally free of charge, but if you’ve found the tips useful perhaps you’d consider making a small donation to your preferred charity. If you don’t have a preferred charity, then you might like to send some money along to an organisation which trains rescue dogs or assistance dogs for people with disabilities.