Smart Ways to Search Microsoft Outlook


Microsoft Outlook involves a lot of data and loads of mails and it is hard to search for a particular item. We can simplify this search by use of some prefixes while searching. I listed all the keywords that can be used for smart searching. Here is a list of Prefixes to use Outlook 2007’s Instant Search more effectively:

 

  • pcsplace

Items containing “pcsplace”, “pcsplace”, “PcSPlace”, or any other combination of uppercase and lowercase

 

  • PCs place

Items containing both “pcs” and “place”, not necessarily in that order

 

  • pcs AND place

Same as the above. Logical operators such as AND and NOT must be typed in uppercase

 

  • pcs NOT place

Items containing “pcs” and not “place”

 

  • pcs OR place

Items containing “pcs”, or “place”, or both

 

  • “pcs place”

Items containing the exact phrase “pcs place”

 

  • from:”prasanth chandra”
    Items sent from “prasanth chandra”, whatever case Mr prasanth uses for his name

 

  • from:”prasanth chandra” about:”pcs place”

Items sent from “prasanth chandra” where “pcs place” appears in the subject line, body, or attachment contents

 

  • hasattachment:yes OR hasattachment:true

Items that have attachments

 

  • attachments:presentation.ppt

Items that have attachments named presentation.ppt, or if the attachment contains “presentation.ppt” in its contents

 

  • subject:”pcs place”

Items whose subject contains the exact phrase “pcs place”, case insensitive

 

  • subject:pcs place

Items with “pcs” in the subject line and with “place” anywhere else in the document

 

  • messagesize:<25 KB

Items whose size is less than 25 KB

 

  • messagesize:>25 MB

Items whose size is larger than 25 MB

 

  • received:=1/3/2008

Items that arrived on 1/3/2008

 

  • received:yesterday

Items that arrived the previous day. As a note here, the search feature recognises the following date values:
Relative dates: For example, “today”, “tomorrow”, “yesterday” Multi-word relative dates:  For example, “this week”, “next month”, etc. Days: Sunday, Monday, etc. Months: January, February, etc.

 

  • received:last week

Items that arrived the previous week

 

  • due:last week

Items that were flagged for follow up in the previous week

 

  • messagesize:tiny

Items whose size is less than 10 KB

 

  • messagesize:small

Items whose size is between 10 and 25 KB

 

  • messagesize:medium

Items whose size is between 25 and 100 KB

 

  • messagesize:large

Items whose size is between 100 and 500 KB

 

  • messagesize:verylarge

Items whose size is between 500 KB and 1 MB

 

  • messagesize:enormous

Items whose size is larger than 5 MB

 

  • followupflag:follow up OR hasflag:true

Items that have been flagged for follow-up

 

  • from:pc (received:1/3/08 OR received:2/3/08)

Items from “pc” that arrived on either 1/3/08 or 2/3/08

 

  • received:>=1/3/08 AND received:<=5/3/08

Items that arrived between and inclusive of 1/3/08 and 5/3/08

 

  • sent:yesterday

Items that were sent the previous day

 

  • read:no OR read:false

Items that have not been read

 

  • subject:pc received:May

Items received from anyone during the month of May of any year, where the subject contains “pc”

 

  • startdate:next week subject:pc

Calendar items the following week where the subject contains “pc”.

 

  • category:pc

Items categorised as “pc”

 

  • firstname:prasanth

Contacts that contain “prasanth” (in any case) in the First Name field
Note: Use “lastname” and “nickname” similarly

 

  • jobtitle:engineer

Contacts that contain “engineer” in the Job Title field

 

  • homephone:2762-9191

Contacts that contain “2762-9191” in the Home Phone field. Similarly, use “businessphone” and “mo
bilephone”, as well as “homefax” and “businessfax”. Also, for searching by contact, you can use “businessaddress” and “homeaddress”, with the address enclosed in brackets.

 

  • birthday:29/10/1988
    Contacts that contain “29/10/1988” in the Birthday field.

 

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