[dba-Tech] Thunderbird question

Generally speaking, I have come to like Thunderbird a lot, but one thing 
I either can't figure out how to use, or maybe it doesn't work correctly 
-- the equivalent of Outlook rules. I have created about a dozen message 
filters and so far as I can determine a few of them are working, but 
most are not.

Further, the "Run Filters on Folder" command just seems to do nothing.

Any confirmation of this problem, or advice on how to make this feature 
work?

TIA,
Arthur

P.S.

There is an option to import addresses etc. from various clients, 
including Outlook. However, Outlook is not on this machine, or to be 
accurate it is on this machine but is empty and unused. Thinking that 
Thunderbird would let me point to an Outlook.pst file, I copied said 
file from the other machine, but TB seems to look only where it thinks 
Outlook.pst should be. Is there any damage likely to occur if I simply 
replace the empty Outlook file with the one copied from the other box?