Use a duplicate contact to simplify changing Outlook forwarding rules in transitions

I use Outlook's rules to keep my e-mail nice and tidy. I also use them to make sure my assistant keeps updated on the goings on. Or I used to, anyway. And now I do again. And I figured out how to simplify updating those rules to make sure the next time I change assistants. I set up a duplicate contact, tell rules to send it to that contact, and change the e-mail address listed for that contact whenever the person changes. All the rules sending messages to that contact (now with a different address) will automatically change.




About a year and a half ago, my assistant moved to sunny Florida with her new husband. (Yes, they seem to love it. Thank you very much.) About a week ago, I changed the e-mail address in my Outlook rules that automatically forwarded certain items to my assistant (mostly court communications, like orders I want to know about a.s.a.p.).

So I've rediscovered these rules, and I want to add to them. Since my rediscovery coincides with my assistant moving a floor down, I became aware that I might have to change assistants again before I retire. And that means I'll have to change all those rules again. How could I set it up so that I could just change one or two items and have all my rules changed?

Unfortunately, there isn't a straightforward way to do this. Fortunately, there is a pretty straightforward work-around.

Outlook's rules can forward mail to a contact as well as an e-mail address. Follow these easy steps:

1. Create your contact. You may already have a contact for the person you want to forward to. If that's the case, just copy the contact. (See here for basics on creating contacts and contact groups.) Name it something like "Josh's Assistant (Name of Assistant)." Or something that makes it clear that this is the duplicate contact you're using for this purpose. That will avoid the mistake of changing the real contact when your assistant moves on.
2. Create your rule. This is pretty straightforward. (See here for details.)
3. Set up your rule to forward to your contact. The only thing tricky is that Outlook doesn't seem to let you look at all your contacts at once in the dialog box. So make sure you know which contacts folder your forwarding contact is stored in. Mine's just in the same folder I keep all my business contacts.
4. Save your rule and apply it to all messages in your inbox. When you set up a rule, by default the check box for applying the new rule to existing messages is unchecked. Whenever I set up a rule, it's usually because I just got a message that prompted the idea to do something with it. So I almost always check the box for Run this rule now on messages already in "Inbox."
5. Tell the person you've set the rule to forward messages to. This may be the most important step. You don't want to confuse your recipient. And make sure to be clear what action, if any, the person receiving the message should take.

 The real bummer is that this approach doesn't apply to a contact group. So doing this for a dynamic group without some I.T. help is either impossible or another day's conquest.

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