Outlook search folders
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The search folder is a mechanism that can locate messages based on various attributes, such as the From field, the To field, and special attributes like Followup flags or Unread status. The message itself stays in its original folder, but is displayed in the search folder. You can create search folders from the File menu or from the Find bar. Let’s walk through the File menu method.
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Click File | New and select Search Folder.
When the New Search Folder dialog box opens, you can select one of the predefined search folders from the list or you can create a custom search folder. To select a predefined folder, just scroll to it and click it. In this example, we selected Unread Mail.
Click OK, and the new search folder will appear in your Outlook folder list. All mail that matches the criterion (mail marked as Unread, in this case) will appear in the messages pane.
If none of the predefined search folders matches the criteria you want to search by, you can create a custom search folder. Let’s say you want to find all messages sent from a particular person. First, go back to the New Search Folders dialog box, scroll to the bottom of the Select A Search Folder list, and click on Create A Custom Search Folder.
Click Choose to open the Custom Search Folder dialog box and give the search folder a name. Here, we’ve named it “Jeff” because we’re searching for all messages from a person by that name.
Click the Criteria button to open the Search Folder Criteria dialog box and specify your search parameters. You can search by keyword in the subject field, message body, or frequently used text fields; by the From or Sent To fields; or by the time the message was sent, received, due, created, modified, or expired. In this case, we’re searching the From field.
Click OK in each dialog box until they’re all closed. Your custom search folder will appear in the Folder List, and messages that match the criterion will appear in the message pane.
