Outlook Search Options
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Do you ever have issues finding an existing email, task, or other Outlook item (for example, you filed away an Outlook email and you don’t remember where you put it)? You’re probably already familiar with the Search box at the top of the Outlook screen. When you use the Search box, Outlook defaults to searching your Current Folder. You can change this default by clicking on File in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, then Options in the lower left-hand corner, then Search. Under the Results section, you can change the default Search option to “Include results only from:”
Current folder
Current folder. Current mailbox when searching from the inbox. (THIS IS USUALLY THE DEFAULT I USE.)
Current mailbox
All mailboxes
Click OK at the bottom of the screen once you make a change to the default.
No matter which default Search option you use, you can still choose different search filters each time you use the Search box in Outlook. If you click into the Search box at the top of the screen, you’ll see a drop down appear to the left of the search box. If you click on the drop down, you’ll see these options:
Current Folder
Subfolders
Current Mailbox
All Mailboxes
All Outlook Items
If you’re having a hard time finding anything, clicking the All Outlook Items option and then searching for whatever you’re trying to find will find any emails, tasks, contacts, notes, etc in Outlook that contain the words that you’re trying to find. The All Outlook Items search casts the widest net possible to find what you’re looking for. I hope this little tip makes it impossible for you to lose any of your Outlook items again.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team