Microsoft KB Archive/253277

= XCLN: How to Delete Messages That Have a Blank Subject Line =

Article ID: 253277

Article Last Modified on 2/26/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 98 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q253277



SYMPTOMS
You cannot create an Outlook rule to process incoming e-mail messages that have a blank Subject line.



CAUSE
This problem occurs because in Outlook, rules cannot process an e-mail message if the Subject line is blank. Rules can only process an e-mail message if the Subject line contains some content.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem:  In your Inbox, on the View menu, click Current View, and then click Customize Current View. Click Group By, and then under Group items by, click Subject to group e-mail messages according to subject.

In this view, e-mail messages that contain a blank Subject line are included in a group that is displayed similar to the following:

Subject: (none)(x items, y unread)

Where x is the total number of e-mail messages in the group, and y is the number of e-mail messages in the group that have not been read. Process that grouped set of e-mail messages as necessary. For example, delete the grouped set of e-mail messages.



MORE INFORMATION
In Outlook you can create rules that process incoming e-mail messages based on a variety of criteria. One type of rule moves, deletes, or processes in some way incoming e-mail messages, based on the contents of the Subject line. For example, if you regularly receive e-mail messages that have a Subject line that contains JOKE, you can create a rule that deletes all incoming e-mail messages that contain JOKE in the Subject line. To create this type of rule, however, you must specify some text for the rule to look for in the Subject line of incoming e-mail messages. Therefore, you cannot create a rule to process an incoming e-mail message that has a blank Subject line.

Additional query words: empty

Keywords: kbprb KB253277

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