If you need to find an important message in your Inbox or a folder, use Search to quickly find items in Outlook. The Search box is always available in all of your Outlook tabs, such as Mail, Calendar, and People.
For tips on getting even better search results with Instant Search, go to How to search in Outlook.
Find a message
In the side navigation bar, select Mail.
Find the search box. It’s at the top of your messages.
To find a word that you know is in a message, or a message from a particular person, type the word or person's name (you can use first, last, and partial names) in the search box. Messages that contain the word or name you specified appear with the search text highlighted in the results.
You can narrow your results even further by changing your search. Here are some common examples:
- Type "expense reports" (including the quotes) to find messages containing the exact phrase "expense reports."
- Type expense AND report ("AND" needs to be in all caps) to find messages containing both the word expense and the word report, but not necessarily in that order. You can also use "OR."
- Type expense NOT report ("NOT" needs to be in all caps) to find messages containing the word expense but not the word report.
Note
Searching only finds items if you search for an entire word or the beginning of a word. If you search for the middle or end of a word, you won't find the item.
When you’re finished, clear the search by selecting the
in the search box.
Narrow your search results
If you can't find what you're looking for, use the search tools on the ribbon to narrow down your search. When you select the search box, you can choose an option in the Scope group on the ribbon. After you decide your scope, you can refine your search by selecting an option such as the subject line or the sender.
Scope (where to search): Choose to search in specific folders, such as all your mailboxes, or just the current folder you selected, which is your Inbox most of the time.
Refine (what to search for): After you select your scope, add other criteria in the Refine group. When you select an option, Outlook adds a special script to the search box to limit its search.
The following are some of the available options:
From: Filters your search results to only show messages sent by a specific person. For example, search for all the messages sent by Sara.
Subject: Filters your search results based on the subject line of the email. For example, search for all the messages that have the keyword “report” in the subject line.
Has Attachments: Gives you all the messages that contain an attachment.
Categorized: Choose a category to view all the messages that you flagged with a specific category.
Sent To: On the drop-down menu, choose an option to filter the results based on the email recipients. For example, filter to get the messages that you were CCed on, or the ones that were sent to a specific person.
Unread: Brings up all the unread messages in the folder that you selected.
Flagged: Brings up messages that you flagged to follow up.
Important: Shows all the messages that were marked with high importance. You can mix and match these options.
Use Advanced Find
If you get too many results, use Advanced Find to refine your search.
Note
Advanced Find isn't available for auto-expanding archives. For more information about auto-expanding archives, see Office 365: Auto-Expanding Archives FAQ.
Select the search box.
On the Search tab, select Search Tools > Advanced Find.
In the Advanced Find box, you can specify much more complex criteria to search in your contacts, notes, and tasks.
Select the Advanced tab.
Under Define more criteria, select the Field button and then select All Mail Fields. You get a menu of fields you can search on, such as From, To, Received, Subject, and more.
Start by choosing a field, then choose a condition and a value.
Add as many additional conditions as you need or want.