Seaching in Outlook desktop

Searching and managing email in Outlook desktop application

Please note that screenshots provided here may not reflect what you see in your application completely, as the way in which the content is presented is completely customisable.

Searching in Outlook

The easiest way to search in Outlook is by using the search bar. This is presented at the top of the screenshot below.












If you have access to more than one mailbox, in the left-hand portion of the Search Bar you can choose to search within the current folder, subfolders, the current mailbox, all mailboxes or All Outlook Items; if you only have access to your mailbox there will be fewer options.

On the right-hand side of the box, where the word search is currently displayed, is where you can add your criteria.

In a similar way to browsing online, you can just type a name, a keyword or a string of words and Outlook will return the results. As with web browsers though, there are many more powerful search terms that narrow the results down.
If I search in my mailbox for communications with Access Dimensions (legacy finance application) I can type:

This is the email address that support tickets come from (it should not need quotes).


Other search terms

subject:

Searches the Subject of all emails for a specified word.

Example, subject:test finds emails containing the word test in the subject
from:

Searches the From line for emails from a specified sender or domain.

Example, from:@elanrdc.com searches the From line of every email message and finds emails from sender@elanrdc.com as well as those from newsletter@elanrdc.com and other emails that include @elanrdc.com.
to:

Searches the To line for email addresses to a specified recipient.

Example, to:me@outlook.com searches the To line of every email message and finds emails addresses to me@outlook.com.
cc:

Searches the CC line for email addresses to a specified recipient.

Example, cc:me@outlook.com searches the CC line of every email message and finds emails addresses to me@outlook.com.
before

Searches for emails sent or received before the given date.

Example, received<01/01/2019 finds emails that were sent or received before the 1st January 2019
after

Searches for emails sent or received after the given date.

Example, received>31/12/2020 finds emails that were sent or received after the 31st December 2020

NOTE

It is possible to combine before and after to find emails within a given window of time.

Example, received<31/12/2017 >01/01/2019 finds emails sent or received during 2018.

Received dates must be provided in the same date format your computer is set to use (e.g. US date format mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy for example).

It is also possible to use named searches of yesterday or last week – if you us the latter because of the space you need to use quotes (received:”last week”).
date:

Searches for mail sent or received on the given date. Use <, <=, >= and >, to search for dates less than (before) and greater than (following) the given date.

Example, date:>=01/08/2021 will return emails since the beginning of August 2021
hasattachment:

Searches mail messages that have at least one file attachment.

Examples: hasattachment:true and has:attachment return all messages containing attachments.

hasattachment:false searches only those messages that have no files attached.
AND (uppercase)

Combines terms in the search so that both must be present. This is the default if no combination operator is present.

Example: cat AND dog displays results that have both the word cat and dog.
OR (uppercase)

Combines search terms so that either of or both terms are returned in the search results.

Example: cat OR dog displays results of either cat and/or dog.
()

Specifies the precedence of search terms. Use parenthesis to specify a date, date range, address, or other information.

Example: from :john (received:1/1/19 or received:2/2/19) searches the From line for messages from John that were received on January 1st 2019 or on February 2nd 2019.

Managing emails

Now you have searched for the content that you require, you can then perform the required actions of the results, for example, moving a conversation or multiple emails to a given folder for storage purposes.
This can be done on a single email, a conversation of emails or multiple different emails at the same time.
To select more than one email, hold down the shift key to select multiple items and you can click right-click the selected group and select move and then the required folder, or you drag the emails to the required folder.

If you have any specific questions about email and how to manage this content, please contact the IT team for assistance (IT@adamsmithinternational.com).

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