Mozilla Filters for Dummys like Me

To filter using Mozilla as your news reader. Mozilla 1.7 and later

A. Filtering individual posters

1. Have a message from the poster whom you wish to block or filter open.
2. Put your cursor on the Tool bar.
3. Left click "Messages".
4. Drop down menu appears.
5. Move cursor down the menu to "Create Filter From Message".
6. Left click "Create Filter From Message".
7. Dialog box labeled "Filter Rules" opens.
8. Move cursor to lower right middle of dialog box
9. Left click OK button.
10. Confirmation screen labeled "Message Filters" appears.
11. Move cursor to upper right corner of confirmation screen labeled "Message Filters".
12. Left click the "X" in the upper left corner of "Message Filters" screen. Screen closes, filter activated. Any NEW messages in that newsgroup from the sender whom you have blocked will not appear. Old messages from the blocked sender will remain in the group.

It takes longer to read these directions than to actually create a filter.

Mozilla's filter structure is very robust. In step 7, above, if you left click "MORE" on the left side of the "Filter Rules dialog box, you can create many much more sohisticated filters, e.g. blocking a message which contains a certain word in the text; or block all messages that do not begin wit, say, "RMR" in the Subject line

If you decide thhat you have erroneously created a filter and want to remove it:

i. Open the usenet newsgroup in Mozilla.

ii. Move cursom to tool bar and Left Click on "Tools".

iii. Drop down appears.

iv. Move cursor to "Message Filters".

v. Left click "Message Filters".

vi. A list of all filters for that newsgroup appears.

vii. Left click once on the filter you want to remove. The filter will be ighlighted.

viii. Move cursor to "Delete" button on right side of screen. Left Click "Delete"

ix. Confirmation screen will appear, asking if you want to delete filter. Left Click "yes" button. Filter deleted.

B. Filtering / Blocking Entire Threads

First, make sure the "Ignore Threads" option is enabled:

1. Get to the list of headers in the newsgroup.
2. Put Cursor on Toolbar, Left Click on "View" pane.
3. Drop Down menu apperars.
4. Left Click "Messages" , additional window appears to the right. Be sure that "ALL" is clicked in that window.

Next, Ignore, Block, or Filter an entire thread:

1. Be on the screen that lists all headers in the newsgroup. Have the header for the thread you want to block / Ignore / Filter highlighted.
2. Left click "Message". Drop down menu appears.
3. Move cursor down the drop dow to "Ignore Thread".
4. Left click "Ignore Thread".

When you ome back to the group after loggig out, the offending hread will not reappear. No new messages posted to the thread will appear.