When you are using Microsoft Outlook, you may need to search for an email. Outlook has a fantastic built-in search feature for desktop versions as well as mobile versions. Even the search feature is also available in the web version of Outlook.com. And the process is much easier than you may think. Please go through the article to know how to search in Outlook email.

How to search in Outlook email?

The typical way to search for an email is to search using the search box just above the emails in any folder. Type your search keyword in the search box and press Enter. Or you may click on the magnifying glass icon next to it.

You can select your desired folder to search from the right dropdown list. This is the easiest way to search for any email from any folder. Besides these, Outlook also offers an Advanced search option to make your search more specific.

Advanced Search in Outlook

When you go for a search in Microsoft Outlook, a new tab named Search appears in the ribbon. It is like the screenshot below.

There is a total of four groups in this tab to make your search more specific.

• Refine Group
• Scope Group
• Options Group
• Close Group

Refine Group

This group contains maximum commands like From, Subject, Has Attachments, etc. You can filter your search using these commands. Let’s say you want to search for an email from a specific email address you can use the From command and type the email sender’s email address in the search box.

When you click the From command,  you will see from: “Sender Name” in the search box. Just type your sender name inside the double quotation. Outlook search will search all emails under the sender name you typed. If you can remember the recipient’s name you can use the Sent to button to make your search more specific.

Again if you click the Subject command button you will see the subject: “keyword” in the search box. Just type your subject keyword inside the double quotation. Outlook search will search all emails under the keyword typed.

Even you can specify the timeline of your email by selecting Today, Yesterday, This Week, etc. from the This Week button.

You can search unread, flagged, important, and categorized emails from this group command button. You can use all the command buttons to make your search more specific.

Scope Group

Under this group, you may specify your folders and subfolders. You can select all Mailboxes or the current mailbox or all Outlook items. If you know the location of your email you can specify the folder name. It will help outlook search for the email accurately.

Options Group

This group contains only two commands.

• Recent searches.
• Search Tools.

Recent searches showed your all recent search activities and Search tools showed you the Indexing status, Location to search, Advanced Find and Search options.

Indexing Status: It is the indexing status of your all emails available in the mailbox. If all emails are indexed in outlook it will show zero results.

Location to search: It means where outlook will search, the location (folder/subfolders/mailboxes) of the search.

Advanced Find: It is basically the advanced search option. You can have all commands together to search any specific email. See the screenshot below this search box can find anything you want from your inbox.

Search Options: It is the general search option for Microsoft Outlook. The most important is Indexing options. If you are not an advanced level user no need to do anything here in the Indexing options.

Importance of search in Outlook

There is no time, during the work period you may need an email as a reference, and you may need to forward any old email to someone. Your boss may ask for an old email from a customer. There is no limitation to the requirement. If you are good in search in Outlook you may support quickly.

How to Search Inside a Message in Outlook

This is amazing, you can search inside a message body. If you know the word but looking for the email message it is also possible.

• Go to The Search tab, Select the More button.
• From the drop-down menu select Body.
• A new box under the search box will appear, type your keyword there.
• Press Enter to search the word in a message body.

I hope, this article will help you to learn how to search in Outlook email and that this content is very much helpful to you.