- Hit Ctrl+E in Outlook 2010 to go to quick search for the current folder: start typing and matching emails start showing in real time. (Click the "x" or hit Esc to return to all your emails).
- In addition to plain text searches, you can filter emails in the current folder using special operators: no need to know them (or even learn them) - when you are in the quick search field, they appear in the Ribbon (in a new "Search Tools / Search" tab), as shown below:
Tip: to quickly filter messages by a single criterion, click on the "Filter" dropdown (right end of the Ribbon's "Home" tab), and select an option - to show Unread emails, for example.
- Click on any of the buttons, and Outlook adds a keyword in the search box: after a few uses, you'll know these by heart and be able to type them right away. Here are a few examples:
"importance:high" (only messages marked as important), "read:no" (only unread emails), "hasattachments:yes" (only messages with attached file), "received:this week", etc. - To go beyond the current folder: click "All Subfolders" / "All Outlook Items" for a wider scope.
Tip: "Outlook Items" will search through contacts, appointments, notes, tasks, etc. - not just email messages, which may take a lot longer.
- Keep in mind the "More" dropdown menu which lets you search by any of the custom fields you can imagine (and shows more columns than are currently showing in the folder).
- "Recent Searches" gives you one-click access to the 10 most recent searches you made.
- For full-fledged searches, press Ctrl+Shift+F, or go to "Search Tools > Advanced Find".
- If your search is too vague (over 200 matching emails / items), Outlook will show a "Your search returned a large number of results. Narrow your search, or click here to view all results." message. Most of the time, the best is to add more search criteria than sift through over 200 results!
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