Outlook Rule : - Moving sent mails to a archived folder

I am going to discuss Outlook rule which would save you time spend on archiving (manually) all the sent emails to the personalized archived folder, importantly without keeping the copy in the default sent folder.

Step I – Creating Outlook Rule to move / copy all the sent mail automatically to a personalized archived folder.

1. Open Rule & Alert Wizard
2. Click on the New Rule Option, which opens “Rules Wizard”
3. Select the option “Apply Rule on Messages I Send” under “Start from a blank rule” & Click Next
4. Under “Select Condition” drill down to the last option “on this computer only” & Click Next
5. Under “Select Action” Select the 2nd Option “move a copy to the specified folder”
6. Now Click on the Specified to select the Archived Folder for all the sent Items
7. Click Finish & Run the Rules

Now, that we are ready with the Outlook rule which would make a copy of all the sent mails to an archived folder but with a copy in an default sent folder also. By default, Outlook keeps a copy of messages that you send in the Sent Items folder, Next step is to remove a default copy of the sent emails in the sent folder, so that we don’t have a duplicate emails.

Step II – Option to Move instead of Copy all the Sent Mail automatically to a personalized archived folder. 

If the Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder check box is not selected, the Sent Items folder won't keep a copy of each message that you send. The Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder check box is selected by default. To select the setting, do the following:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.
3. Under Message handling, un-select the Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder check box.

If you disable the option to save sent items in Sent Items, then the rule will do what you seek since only the copy you put in the folder with the rule will exist. But Outlook won't create another one in Sent Items.

Now, you need not manually drag / move all the sent items to the archived folder periodically.