Clever Clogs tip # 677
21 October 2021


Use Outlook's predefined filters to find that needle in a haystack *


Searching in Outlook is powerful - and easy, once you know how.

I wrote my first "find a needle in a haystack" tip back in November 2009 and since then I've been banging on about overcoming old habits and finding faster ways of working. So I hope you have fallen in love with the Search bar and set up some useful Search Folders. Perhaps you use CTRL + E or ALT + Q?

But have you ever used the Filter Email button in the Find group on the Home tab? I feel this can be particularly helpful for those of you work with Categories, as shown below and described in tip 580.

Let me know what your favourite way of searching in Outlook is. Have a look at the following tips for inspiration ...

Related tips

  1. Find that needle in a haystack: tip_292.php
  2. Find even more needles in that haystack: tip_294.php
  3. Reduce irrelevant search results: tip_376.php
  4. Search for messages sent to a particular person during a certain period of time: tip_406.php
  5. Display your flagged messages in a "For Follow Up" folder: tip_443.php
  6. When replying to a message that is not in the Inbox, save the reply in same folder: tip_459.php
  7. What to do when no search results are found: tip_484.php
  8. Find email messages sent or received between certain dates: tip_524.php
  9. Organise and find email messages in your shared mailbox: tip_580.php
  10. Refine your search by sender, date, attachment, subject and more - from one box: tip_656.php

K.

PS Follow #CleverClogsTipTime on LinkedIn for more shortcuts, hints and tips. You don't know what you don't know! ...

  1. Double-click the format painter to apply the same formatting to multiple places
  2. Struggling to spot whether Word is tracking changes or not?
  3. How fonts affect learning and memory

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* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013 and 2016.