Search Outlook Using Keywords

Most people perform searches within Outlook using a very basic approach. You can use the following commands at the top of your Inbox to perform powerful searches:

Here are some examples of how you can search:

Type this
To find this

bob
Anything with bob, Bob, BOB or any other case combination

bob smith
Anything with bob and/or smith, but not necessarily in that order

bob AND smith
Anything containing bob and smith. AND must be capitalized.

“bob smith”
Anything containing the exact phrase ‘bob smith’

from:”bob smith”
Anything from ‘bob smith’. Note the colon and quotes so that results contain exactly ‘bob smith’

from:”bob smith” about:”status report”
Anything from ‘bob smith’ with ‘status report’ appears in the subject, body or attachment. Note the colon and quotes so that results contain exactly ‘bob smith’ and ‘status report’

hasattachment:yes
Anything that has an attachment.

from:”bob smith” hasattachment:yes
Anything from ‘bob smith’ with an attachment

subject:”status report”
Anything that contains ‘status report’ in the subject line

cc:”bob smith”
Anything that has ‘bob smith’ in the CC field

read:no
Any item that isn’t marked read.

These are a few examples of the searches that you can perform in the Outlook search field. Keep in mind you can also right click an email and choose either ‘Find Related…’ and choose either ‘Messages in this conversation’ or ‘Messages from this sender.’