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    Search Mail and People in Outlook on the web

    Dimension4 / Search Mail and People in Outlook on the web

    Search Mail and People in Outlook on the web

    In Outlook on the web, you can use the search bar at the top of the page to search for email messages and people.

    Choose your version for instructions

    The instructions are slightly different depending on whether you’re using the new Outlook on the web. Choose which version of Outlook on the web you’re using to see the steps that apply to you.

    IF YOUR MAILBOX LOOKS LIKE…

    Outlook on the Web Beta

    See Instructions for the new Outlook on the web.

    IF YOUR MAILBOX LOOKS LIKE…

    Outlook on the web

    See Instructions for classic Outlook on the web.

    Note: If your organization has included its logo in the toolbar, you might see something slightly different than shown above.

    Instructions for the new Outlook on the web

    Search for an email message

    1. In the Search box, type what you want to search for (a contact, subject, or part of a message) and press Enter.A screenshot of the search bar
    2. When you’re done with the search, select Exit Exit Searchin the Search box or choose any folder in the navigation pane to exit the search.

      A screenshot of the Exit Search button

    Search for a contact to find email messages
    1. Start typing a name in the Search box. Choose from the suggested people in the list below the Searchbox, or press Enter to see more results.A screenshot of suggested people in the search results
    2. When you select a contact in the search results, you’ll see a list of email messages related to that contact.
    3. Search for a person to see all email messages
    4. To send a message to your contact, select Send email below the contact’s name. To add the contact to Favorites, select Add to Favorites next to the contact’s name.
    Use filters to refine your search

    You can use Search filters to refine your search with options like Folders, From, To, Subject, keywords, date ranges, and attachments. To use search filters, select Filters Filter at the end of the search box.

    Search box in Outlook on the web showing the available filters

    Instructions for classic Outlook on the web

    Search for an email message or contact

    1. Enter your search keyword in the Search Mail and People box.
      A screenshot of the Search Mail and People box
    2. Select one of the suggested messages or contacts, or press Enter to see all the possible results.

      Tip: If you’re searching for a contact, choose the Search People link at the bottom of the list of suggestions to limit the search to your contacts and your organization’s directory.

      After you enter your keyword, you can refine your search to only include email messages in a certain folder, from a specific sender, with attachments, or within a certain date range.

    3. To clear your search results, move your cursor over the search box and select Discard discard .

    Refine your search

    After you enter your search keyword, you can use the navigation pane to refine your search results:

    • In folders: Only search for messages in a specific folder, such as Inbox, Sent Items, and Archive.
    • From: Only search for messages from a specific sender.
    • Options: Only search for messages that match certain criteria, such as messages with attachments.
    • Date: Only search for messages within a certain date range.

    A screenshot of the search results nagivation pane.

    Search in People

    When you enter a name in the Search Mail and People box in Mail, a Search People option appears. Selecting this option lets you search in People, where your search results will be limited to your contacts and your organization’s directory.

    To search in People:

    1. In the Search Mail and People box, type the name of the person, group, or resource you want to search for, and press Enter.
    2. At the bottom of the search results, select Search People.
    3. Refine your search by searching only in Your contacts or Directory.

    4. To clear your search results, move your cursor over the search box and select Discard discard .

    Use Advanced Query Search to refine results

    Use Advanced Query Search (AQS) to refine your search results. In the search box, type an AQS keyword from the table below, followed by a colon and what you want to search for. For example, to find messages with a subject that contains “report,” enter subject:report in the Search Mail and People box.

    AQS keywordDescriptionExample
    FromSearches the From field.From:JerriFrye
    ToSearches the To field.To:JerriFrye
    CcSearches the Cc field.Cc:JerriFrye
    BccSearches the Bcc field.Bcc:JerriFrye
    ParticipantsSearches the To, Cc, and Bcc fields.Participants:JerriFrye
    SubjectSearches the subject.Subject:report
    Body or ContentSearches the message body.Body:report
    SentSearches the date sent. You can search for a specific date or a range of dates separated by two dots (..). You can also search for relative dates: today, tomorrow, yesterday, this week, next month, last week, past month. You can search for the day of the week or month of the year.

    Important: Date searches must be entered in month/day/year format: MM/DD/YYYY.

    		Sent:01/01/2017
    ReceivedSearches for the date received. You can use the same search terms as for Sent.Received:01/01/2017
    CategorySearches the Category field.Category:reports
    HasAttachment:yesA search for HasAttachment:yes returns only email messages with attachments.

    To further specify the email messages you want to search, use words or names from the mail in conjunction with the search keyword. For example, blue hasattachment:yes would return only email messages containing the word “blue” that include attachments.

    		reportHasAttachment:yes
    HasAttachment:noA search for HasAttachment:no returns only email messages without attachments.reportHasAttachment:no
    IsFlagged:yesA search for IsFlagged:yes returns only email messages that are flagged.report IsFlagged:yes
    IsFlagged:noA search for IsFlagged:no returns only email messages that are not flagged.report IsFlagged:no

    When you use AQS, you can search on multiple search terms, including any, all, or an exact phrase.

    • Subject:product plan will find any message with “product” or “plan” in the subject.

    • Subject:(product plan) will find any message with both “product” and “plan” in the subject.
    • Subject:“product plan” will find any message with the phrase “product plan” in the subject.

    You can also use AND or OR to search on multiple search terms. For example, you could search for messages from Jerri that include “report” in the subject by entering From:Jerri AND Subject:report in the search box.

    Search tips and tricks

    Use these tips and tricks to define more precise searches.

    • Keyword searches are not case sensitive. For example, cat and CAT return the same results.
    • When searching on a property:value expression, don’t put a space after the colon. If there is a space, your intended value will just be full-text searched. For example, to: JerriFrye searches for “JerriFrye” as a keyword, rather than for messages that were sent to JerriFrye. To search for messages sent to JerriFrye, enter to:JerriFrye.
    • A space between two keywords or two property:value expressions is the same as using AND. For example, from:”Jerri Frye”subject:reorganization returns all email messages sent by Jerri Frye that contain the word reorganization in the subject line.
    • When searching a recipient property, such as To, From, Cc, or Recipients, you can use an SMTP address, alias, or display name to denote a recipient. For example, you can use JerriFrye@contoso.com, JerriFrye, or “JerriFrye”.
    • You can use only suffix wildcard searches—for example, cat* or set*. Prefix wildcard searches (*cat) or substring wildcard searches (*cat*) aren’t supported.
    • When searching a property, use double quotation marks (” “) if the search value consists of multiple words. For example, subject:budget Q1 returns messages that contain budget in the in the subject line and Q1 anywhere in the message or in any of the message properties. Using subject:“budget Q1”returns all messages that contain budget Q1 anywhere in the subject line.

    • To exclude content marked with a certain property value from your search results, place a minus sign (-) before the name of the property. For example, -from:“Jerri Frye” will exclude any messages sent by Jerri Frye.

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