Some comments and answers:

Special | Create Filter is a simple dialog to make simple filters quickly. For the full filter creation/management dialog, see Account | Sorting Office/Filters.

The main Help item on filters can be found at https://www.ritlabs.com/en/support/help/64/


(note that manual and inbound are not mutually exclusive. Filters from all categories can be made manual, and can then be applied to messages of all kinds).


Yes if you first select the desired messages.


Yes, but (as far as I know) not on all at the same time. A manual filter is executed on the current message or on the current selection of messages.


If you mean selected messages, yes.


I guess you could use a filter for that (in the case of specific frequently recurring searches) but the more common everyday approach is to simply use Tools | Search (F7).

Note: a filter sets up certain qualification criteria and certain actions. For instance, a filter might look for messages that contain "Widget" and then Copy them to folder "Sales". However, when you make a filter fully manual (i.e. it will not be run automatically when new messages arrive, or are replied, etc.), then by default it will apply its action to all selected messages. So, if you select ten random messages and press your hotkey for this filter, all 10 will be copied to Sales, regardless of whether they contain Widget or not. If you want the filter to apply its qualification criteria (so it will only copy the messages that actually contain Widget), then you must enable the "Check the messages against this rule" option.


Not my experience..

That's part of the help text for Color Groups, which is not directly related to filters (it describes how different types of messages will be displayed in the message list).


No, I don't think that matters. To my best knowledge, when you select a bunch of messages and press the hotkey that you've set up for a filter, that filter will be applied to all selected messages regardless of the category that the filter was made in.


I don't think there's an alternative. Filters can be triggered automatically as messages come in, are read, replied to, or sent. Or you can use the Refilter command to apply certain classes of filters to the current folder. But to trigger one specific filter, I know of no other way than to use a hotkey.

Well, you put your cursor on a message in the list and it's selected, simple as that  Use Shift-click to select a range, Control-click to add or remove messages to your selection, Ctrl-A to Select All, et cetera.


You can use the Folder | Re-filter command and assign a hotkey to it, but that would run all active manual filters in the folder - not sure if that's what you need?

Your 'stage 2' sounds well-suited for automatic filters, wouldn't you rather use those and just sit back while The Bat takes care of it?

Backing up: I don't use The Bat's backup feature, I just include its mail directory in my regular system backups. Likewise, you could move the contents of that directory to The Bat's mail directory on another PC.

I'm afraid so. I use Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down. I don't think there's a way to move multiple filters around at the same time, or to make them jump to the top or bottom.

No, apparently not. They're stored in a file named account.srx.

If you want them in text format, you could copy your filters to the clipboard, paste them into a text editor, work on them there and then paste them back. I doubt if that would really be faster though (they're multi-line blocks -not easy to sort like that- and I don't know if The Bat will re-sort them when you paste them back).

But you can just click on the 'From' column header to sort on it, can't you? (I can)

I don't think I've ever noticed this myself. I'd take a good look at the filter definition and at the message that should have triggered it. Theoratically, the message may also have triggered a previous filter that did not use the "continue processing with other filters" option - and then the current filter would never get to see it.


I don't think there is

Back to the filter.

It seems that The Bat! is a bit unusual with the:

"Sender" *"Contains"  concept..
I had "@facebookmail.com" and that is not a match. I want any email that ends with that to go to one spot.

And I probably need to have  "ends with" as the safest.  
Although some others might work?.

If that is right, then I still would like to know the difference between "Contains" and  "Match"
I went over some of the earlier puzzles in the forum.

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And what does "move out" and "move in" do ?

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Steven

The three commands above are all within one folder?  (The emphasis is CTRL-A.)    
Is there any more global selection method possible?

e.g. All the mail in all the folders withing an account.
Or all the mail in a folder with its sub-folders.

If there is not an ability to do a global manual filter,if you have to go single folder by single folder, that would be awkward.
And I would put it in to Ritlabs as an enhancement.

Steven

Thanks.
True.  

However, one  of my goals is to apply a filter on the existing mail.

eg. If the mail matches up with an address in the address book, I could assign it a colour group.
Then, I could have a virtual folder with all the mail with sender or recipient that matches my address book. Handy-dandy.

This is doable with filters for mail inbound, as has been pointed out on the forum.
However,  I would like to do it for the historical mail.

Any ideas?

Steven

My main goal is to run the filter on my mail so that all the letters  that match up to my address book can be given a special marker, like a  color group.

With this filter, if I missed some responses to  mail that I sent out, they would be easy to find in a new virtual box,  based on the color code. (As long as the sender used the same address.)

Granted, I should set this up for new mail, going forward, but I would also like to go backwards.

The  method you outline above would be cumbersome to use on a couple of  hundred email folders.  However, I could just run it on the more likely  parking boxes (ignoring e.g. forum mail.)  

And I could use the  tabs under the mailbox folders  to create a single spot where a dozen or  so boxes could be kept. I sort of like those tabs for specialty groups  of mail folders. Although you have to make it a "favorite set" if you  want the ability to add or subtract folders later.

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The  tabs under the message list have been quirky.   I have not figured out  how to make them stick, rather than vanish upon creation. And whether  they are supposed to be variable to the specific folders, rather than  global.  

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Steven

Thanks.  I will try the full blown virtual folder idea, to filter en masse.

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First, though, on my tests of hotkey manual filters.

This message often comes up:

"OK to delete the related entry from Address Book?"

I don't see anything in the General or Options section that should lead to that question.
Any help appreciated.
Steven