How to Print Incoming Mail Automatically in Outlook

The great thing about junk mail is that it comes in printed form. The paper feels nice, and the mail is often interesting to look at even though the advertised products might not be.

Now, I won't advocate printing spam to appreciate it more, but emails in printed form do feel better than something on a screen. A paper copy is also a nice archive, and many can ponder difficult material better when it is printed.

Printing an individual message, of course, is easy in Outlook. What if you want to automate the process, though, and have Outlook print incoming emails automatically? Maybe even filtering them first and printing only certain messages?

Print Incoming Mail Automatically in Outlook

To make Outlook print emails automatically as they are retrieved:

• In Outlook 2013:
  • Click FILE.
  • Open the Info category.
  • Click Manage Rules & Alerts.
• In Outlook 2007:
  • Select Tools | Rules and Alerts... from the menu in Outlook.
• Click New Rule....
• In Outlook 2013:
  • Highlight Apply rule on messages I receive under Start from a blank rule.
• In Outlook 2007:
  • Highlight Check messages when they arrive under Step 1: Select a template.
• Click Next >.
• Check a filtering criterion or criteria if you want to print only certain messages and make sure you fill in the variables under Step 2: Edit the rule description.
• Click Next >.
• If you specified no filtering criteria, click Yes.
• Check print it under Step 1: Select action(s).
• Click Finish.
• Now click OK.

For more automatic printing options in Outlook (including automatic printing of attachments), you can use a tool such as Print Tools for Outlook.  (Check my other post for this information)