Is there a way to assign a rule to a category of contacts, or do I have
to use folders? For example, when I recieve a mail from a contact that
has the category "Friends", can I make a rule that also assigns the
mail-category "Friends" to the received e-mail? If there is no way to
connect rules for incoming e-mails to the category of the sender, do
you know of any macros or add-ins that will do this?

THe built-in rules can't do anything like that. It might be possible for you to write a VBA macro that searches the contacts folder for a matching email address, but I haven't seen any readymade samples you can install today. If you want to try your hand at a macro, start at http://www.outlookcode.com/d/vbabasics.htm

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

"Sebastian" wrote in message ups.com...
Is there a way to assign a rule to a category of contacts, or do I have
to use folders? For example, when I recieve a mail from a contact that
has the category "Friends", can I make a rule that also assigns the
mail-category "Friends" to the received e-mail? If there is no way to
connect rules for incoming e-mails to the category of the sender, do
you know of any macros or add-ins that will do this?