How to designate Outlook folders as Spam folders in NEO

Topic T1134 Applies to All NEO products


Problem

Spam is a problem for e-mail users. Many Outlook users have third-party applications to automatically detect and isolate spam (junk e-mail) into one or more Outlook folders. Later versions of Outlook have this feature built in (Outlook 2003), and many third party programs have more extensive capabilities. NEO supports any product that creates a special Outlook folder that is used to store spam by allowing you to exclude from NEO messages going into these spam folders. Often spam filters will create two folders that you will need to keep an eye on. One which the filter determines are certain spam and a second that it determines are suspected spam that you will need to pay more attention to and examine regularly. The excluded messages are still viewable in your Outlook folders (via NEO's Outlook View) - they just aren't included in any of NEO's normal folders such as Active Mail, Today, and so on. Information on this is also available in NEO Help.


Spam Designation in NEO 2.5

Setting up a folder in NEO 2.5 as containing spam is simply a matter of listing the Outlook folders that contain the spam or junk e-mail messages by name in the spam dialog. Go to NEO 'Tools | Options | Spam tab' and enter the names of the folders that contain spam or names of the folders that you want to exclude from NEO indexing:


It is only necessary to list the actual folder name, without the folder path to it (within the Exchange Server mailbox, PST or archive PST). Starting at the time you designate the folder as having spam content, all messages received will no longer be indexed so they will not appear in any NEO virtual view. This setting is not retroactive, however, and acts as a workflow setting in NEO 2.5 starting when the folder is added to the spam list. Messages that have previously arrived in the folder will still be indexed and you will need to deal with them manually. Messages in a NEO spam designated folder can still be viewed by clicking on the Outlook spam folder in the Outlook Folder Pane (lower left).


Spam Designation in NEO (Std) 3.0 and NEO Pro 3.0

In NEO (Std) 3.0 or NEO Pro 3.0 an Outlook folder is designated as containing spam, junk e-mail content or other messages you don't want NEO to index through the folder properties. To set this, follow these steps:
  1. Go to the Outlook Folder Pane (lower left in default NEO UI);
  2. Right click the folder;
  3. Choose the Folder Properties item at the bottom of the fly-out context menu;
  4. At the bottom of the Folder Properties dialog is the spam designation;
  5. Check the box for "Folder contains spam (not organized in NEO)".

Upon spam designation, the folder icon for this Outlook folder in the Outlook View will change to reflect the spam de-indexing. For illustration, the icons for the Infected, Junk E-mail and Spam folders that appear as:


will change to the following when designated as having spam content:


The entire message store is scanned for messages contained in the newly spam designated folder(s) and those messages are removed from normal NEO folder organization. Starting at the time you designate the folder as having spam content, all messages received will no longer be indexed so they will not appear in any NEO virtual view or folder. These messages can still be viewed by clicking on the Outlook spam designated folder in the Outlook Folder Pane (lower left).


Last updated: 11 Feb 2005