You can access Outlook's Search Folders by scrolling to the bottom of the folder list and expanding the Search Folders heading. Because Search Folders are virtual folders and don't actually exist in your folder tree, they consume a small amount of resources on your computer. For this reason, they deactivate themselves if not used for three weeks. If a Search Folder has been deactivated, its name will appear in italics. It's easy to reactivate your Search Folders. Simply click on the Search Folder's name and it will reactivate itself. It might take a few extra seconds for the Search Folder to populate with Outlook items. Creating Search FoldersYou can create your own Search Folders to supplement the three default Search Folders. You can create Search Folders by right-clicking on an existing Search Folder or on the folder called Search Folders and selecting New Search Folder to display Figure 22.23. Figure 22.23. Use this wizard to create a new Search Folder.Much like the Outlook Rules Wizard, the New Search Folder Wizard contains a number of built-in Search Folder criteria for you to choose from. You can select one of the existing criteria or choose to create a custom Search Folder. To create a Search Folder for all messages received from your boss using the built-in criteria, use the following steps:
NOTE Your Search Folder doesn't actually contain any items. A Search Folder is a virtual folder more like a view of items across your entire mailbox. The items that appear in your Search Folder are still located in their original location. CAUTION Although a Search Folder doesn't actually contain any items, deleting an item from a Search Folder actually does delete the item from its original location. When viewing a Search Folder, you're looking at the original item it's simply displayed in a virtual folder. Any operation you perform on the item (adding a Quick Flag, marking it as read, or deleting it), acts on the item in its original location. By default, your search folder is grouped by conversation. You can customize the views of search folders in much the same way as customizing the views for any other Outlook folder. Your search folder is named for the recipient you selected. You can rename your Search Folder by right-clicking on the folder and selecting Rename <folder name>. To create a new search folder based on custom criteria, use the following steps:
If your Search Folder doesn't return any data and you want to edit the Search Folder criteria, right-click on the Search Folder and select Customize This Search Folder. You can then edit the name, criteria, and search scope of your Search Folder. Creating a Search Folder from the Advanced Find DialogYou can create a Search Folder directly from the Advanced Find dialog. Simply create your Advanced Find search as described in the previous section on Advanced Find. You need to click the Find Now button to complete your search. Then choose Save Search as Search Folder from the File menu. Give your Search Folder a name and click OK. Outlook will create a Search Folder with the same criteria as your Advanced Find search. Using Search FoldersSearch folders were designed to help you keep the information you need at your fingertips. If you use the Quick Flag feature, the For Follow Up search folder will display all flagged items grouped by flag color, as shown in Figure 22.28. Figure 22.28. The For Follow Up search folder.The first thing you probably do if you've been away from your desk for a while is look for unread mail. If you have multiple rules to move new items to various folders, you might have to look through seven or eight folders to find all of your unread mail. So, Microsoft designed an Unread Mail Search Folder that displays all unread mail in one folder. For ease of use, the Unread Mail Search Folder is grouped by folder. This way, you can easily tell where all of your unread items are located. |