Other Ways to Find Outlook Items

Other Ways to Find Outlook Items

Advanced Find uses the same interface as Search Folders and Customize View's filters and automatic formatting, so the criteria you use for Advanced Find can be used with views or in Search Folders.

Although Advanced Find, Custom View's filters, and Search Folders use the same filtering interface and criteria, each one serves a different need:

• Use Advanced Find to search all folders in your message stores and display the results in a separate window. You can save Advanced Find searches and rerun them later.

• Use filters in a customized view to filter items in a folder.

• Search Folders combine the best of custom views and Advanced Find, filtering messages from all of your mail folders and showing the results in one folder.

Using Views

Custom views are commonly used to show a subset of items in a folder, such as all unread messages or all new messages. Custom views can replace Find or Advanced Find to display items matching your criteria. Custom views are often the best way to filter when you know which folder the item is stored in. Unlike Search Folders, custom views work with all Outlook item types.

Right-click the field names in your message list and select Custom. Select Filters and enter your criteria. Click OK twice to apply the filters to your folder.

For more information about creating custom views, see Hour 3, "Navigating the Outlook Interface."

Using Search Folders

Search Folders were designed for permanent searches. Using Search Folders instead of Advanced Find is a perfect choice when you frequently need to use the same search criteria for messages, such as showing all messages to and from your boss or a client. Unlike Advanced Find, the results display in the message list, not a second window. Because Search Folders work only with message folders, they don't replace Advanced Find for all of your searches. You'll find many uses for them, even with this limitation.

See "Using Search Folders" in Hour 9, "Keeping Email Organized," for more information about Search Folders.

Summary

By now, you should be able to find anything in your message store. Although Find has only basic features, many users rarely use anything but Find. Advanced Find offers a lot of options and filtering capabilities. As you improve your query building skills creating advanced finds, you can use the knowledge to develop custom view filters and Search Folders criteria.