How to Create a Unified Inbox View

Applies to Microsoft Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007

This is a solution to a very popular question of how to create a Unified Inbox in Outlook 2010. It was posted in the TechNet forums by oju2. While not quite the same as a true Unified Inbox for all email accounts, it has one advantage a true unified inbox does not offer: a very easy way to filter out the mail you don't want to see in a unified view by adding additional queries to the txtSearch line in each macro.

This solution could easily be adapted to apply any frequently used search conditions to a folder.

To use, press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor, expend Project1 and paste the code into ThisOutlookSession. Add Buttons to Your ribbon or QAT to call the macros to quickly enable the Unified Inbox search when needed. Remember: you need to have macro security set on Low, Warn, or sign the macros using SelfCert.

See How to use Outlook’s VBA Editor for complete details.

Sub UnifiedInbox()
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
txtSearch = "folder:Inbox received: (this week)"
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
Set myOlApp = Nothing
End Sub

Sub UnifiedSentbox()
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
txtSearch = "folder: (Sent Mail) sent: (this week)"
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
Set myOlApp = Nothing
End Sub

Valid Search Scopes

In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013, you can choose between the following search scopes:

In Outlook 2007, you are limited to olSearchScopeAllFolders and olSearchScopeCurrentFolder

Create a macro for any frequently used Instant Search

You can easily use this macro to create a frequently used search and assign it to a button. You can use instant search to get the criteria then copy and paste it in txtSearch line. When a search query includes double quotes, replace them with parenthesis.

For example, category:="MTWT" becomes category:(MTWT)

Sub SearchByCategory()
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
txtSearch = "category:(Business)"
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
Set myOlApp = Nothing
End Sub

Use this code to search (in the current folder) for mail received within the last 7 days.

Sub LastSevenDays()
Dim myolApp As New Outlook.Application
Dim tDate As Date
tDate = Now - 7
txtSearch = "received: (" & Format(tDate, "mm/dd/yyyy") & ".." & Format(Now, "mm/dd/yyyy") & ")"
myolApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeCurrentFolder
Set myolApp = Nothing
End Sub

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