When I try to create a rule for sorting my mail into folders, I get as far as selecting a folder and then the computer just shows the hourglass and never finishes the project. When I escape I have no rule for sorting mail.

Solution # 1: Get rid of OLE, get Thunderbird. Solution # 2 (longer and more painful[lifetime proj]: May be a corrupted file. If there's an option to do a repair on OLE, try that. Could search MS for how to do repair, if not a kb on the exact problem. BE SURE to back up your addresses and mail from OLE before you do work on it, or it may be the last time you see them alive.

repeat (sorry)

I really appreciate your help. I was able to create a new "Identity" and download all my messages into the new identity. I now can create rules from the messages and sort my mail as it comes in. Now i have a new prob. My address book that I imported and synchonized does not show all my contacts. When I do a "find" the name appears but I have to do this extra step every time I want to find a contact. Is there any help for this?

...."When I do a "find" the name appears but I have to do this extra step every time I want to find a contact. Is there any help for this?"... What extra step is that? Are you saying a search finds the name, but it doesn't show up when just scanning through the address book? Imports of email contacts / bookmarks cause a lot of problems for a lot of people. You might check into a 3rd party prgm to convert (if you had to) the contacts from one format into another, then manually place them where they need to go. Depends on what prgm you used before. There are lots of free prgms that do this. Again, back up your good copy of the contacts file before doing anything. Whatever trouble it takes to find out how to do that in OE, will be worth it. Once it's working, if email addresses are important to you, should back them up periodically. It's just that Thunderbird is so much easier to work w/ than OE. M$ products are like black boxes - no one really knows what's going on inside. Whereas, open source prgms like Thunderbird / Firefox are pretty transparent.

Thanx for all your help. Yes, the extra step is doing a "find" rather than seeing the contact in the list. I have since added most of my contacts from the messages so my list is pretty complete now. If i continue to be frustrated I will probably look into Thunderbird. Bye the way, I can no longer create rules from messages so I am back where I started except that the rules I created yesterday still work. Oh well.