39. Search Your Messages  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 33 About Email and Text Messages
 SEE ALSO 38 Organize Your Messages
As your list of sent and received text messages grows on your device, immediately accessing information within them becomes increasingly difficult. Although it's certainly possible to open every message and look for information that is of interest, this approach is woefully inefficient. Fortunately, your device has a built-in search feature that allows you to instantly search all your messages for keywords. Using this search approach, you can quickly search for and isolate messages based on a name , message subject, or message text. | 1. | Open the Messages Screen
Scroll to the Messages icon on the Home screen and click the trackwheel. The Messages screen appears, displaying a list of messages that have been sent and received on your device.
| | 2. | Open the Search Screen
Click the trackwheel and select Search from the menu that appears. Click once more to open the Search screen.
| | 3. | Enter the Search Criteria The Search screen allows you to search for messages based on any combination of the following search criteria: Name, Subject, Message, Folder, Show , and Type . The Name criterion can consist of any name in any address field or specifically the From:, To:, Cc: , or Bcc: field; use the In setting to determine whether you are searching for any name or within a specific field . You can specify text for the Subject and Message criteria that is used to match text in the subject and body of the message, respectively. The Folder criterion allows you to specify an individual folder in which to limit the search. The Show criterion allows you to limit the search results to messages in the Received, Sent, Saved , or Draft folder. And finally, the Type criterion allows you to limit the search to a particular type of message, such as an email or PIN message. In the example shown, I've chosen to search only for messages I've received from my brother. 39. Search Your Messages   TIPS When entering the Name criterion for a message search, keep in mind that the name can be a person's name, a PIN, or a phone number (SMS address). You can quickly perform a message search based on a particular sender or message subject by selecting a message on the Messages screen, clicking the trackwheel, and then selecting Search Sender (select Search Recipient if you sent the message) or Search Subject from the menu that appears. Click once more to instantly search your messages for the particular sender or subject. You can enter as many or as few of the search criteria as you want. Just keep in mind that the more information you provide, the more accurate the results will be. On the other hand, if you try to get too specific, you might limit the search results too much. It all comes down to how exacting you want the search to be. | | 4. | Perform the Search
After entering the search criteria, click the trackwheel and select Search from the menu that appears. Click once more to initiate the search. The results are displayed as a message list.
| TIPS If you find yourself repeatedly performing a similar search, consider saving the search. After entering the search criteria on the Search screen, click the trackwheel and select Save from the menu that appears. Click once more, and then enter a title for the saved search on the Save Search screen; you can also create a shortcut for the search if you'd like, which is the combination of the Alt key plus another unused key. To save the search, click the trackwheel, select Save from the menu, and click again. In addition to any of your own saved searches, consider using some built-in saved searches. To recall and issue a saved search from the Search screen, click the trackwheel and select Recall from the menu that appears. Click once more to display a list of saved searches. If a saved search has a keyboard shortcut, the key is shown in parentheses next to the search in the list; press the Alt key plus the letter key to initiate the search directly from the Messages screen. Otherwise, initiate a saved search by selecting the search from the list, clicking the trackwheel, choosing Select Search from the menu that appears, and clicking once more.
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