[Design] filters: req for filter action of "set category"

[Kaitlin Duck Sherwood]

I would like to request that -- unless the team comes up with 
stunningly good adaptive filtering -- there be a filter action which 
will set a field (I'll call it "category") that I can then sort my 
inbox by.

As I mentioned in this earlier post,
   http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/design/2002-November/000680.html
many (if not most) people can't keep track of their "to-do" messages 
when they are spread across multiple folders.  (Yes, yes, I know 
*you* can, but you're unusually good at it.)

Unfortunately, it's really hard to manage a time-ordered list of 
messages.  It's hard to see what messages are related to which other 
messages, it's hard to see which are important and which are spam, 
etc.  Arg!

What I now advise people to do is to use filters to use filters to 
set a field that they can sort by, then sort their mailbox by that 
field.  For example, in Outlook, use filters (rules) to set the 
Category of a message, then set up a View that Groups messages by 
Category.

If you assign your categories such that they sort in priority order, 
then voila!  the inbox will have important messages near the top and 
garbage at the bottom.  For example, in Outlook, assign your 
Categories in alphabetical order, e.g. a-Spouse, b-Boss, 
c-Colleagues, d-Relatives, m-Friends, p-GardeningList, t-Strangers, 
z-ProbableSpam.

(To give an analogy to postal mail, filtering into folders is like 
having a clerk put your letters and bills into the proper folders in 
your filing cabinet.  Using categories in this way is like having 
your clerk sort your messages into piles on your kitchen table.)

-- 
Kaitlin Duck Sherwood
Author of the _Overcome Email Overload_ series, http://www.EmailOverload.com