Use Instant search to find messages from a contact

Older versions of Outlook have the Activities tab which will find all Outlook items associated with a particular contact. Activities are broken in Outlook 2010 and removed from Outlook 2013.

While you can use the Social Connector's People pane to see all messages, appointments, and attachments from a person, you can also use Instant Search. Type from:(name) or from:(email@address) in the Instant search field.

This macro makes it easier to use Instant Search to find messages for a selected contact, by entering the contact's name or email address into the Instant Search field in the Inbox.

If you need persistent search results, see How to create an Outlook search folder using VBA.

This macro can use any valid Instant search criteria. You just need to replace or edit the txtSearch line. To find messages to and from a contact, use txtSearch = "from:" & strFilter & " OR to:" & strFilter

Search for messages from contact macro

1. Open the VBA editor using Alt+F11
2. Right click on Project1 and choose Insert > Module
3. Paste the following code into the module.
4. Set macro security to low to test the code, then use Selfcert to sign the macro before change security to high.
5. Add the macro to a ribbon, QAT, or toolbar button.
6. Select a contact and run the macro.

Sub SearchByAddress()

Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim strFilter As String
Dim oContact  As Outlook.ContactItem

Set ns = myOlApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set oContact = ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)

' use oContact.FullName to search on the name
strFilter = oContact.Email1Address
 
Set myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

txtSearch = "from:" & strFilter
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders

Set myOlApp = Nothing

End Sub

Search for messages to or from a sender

This version of the code creates an instant search for all messages to or from the sender, including messages you sent.

To use, select a message and run the macro. An instant search for messages to or from the person's email address is created.

Sub SearchByAddress()
 
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim strFilter As String
Dim oMail  As Outlook.MailItem
 
Set ns = myOlApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
 
Set oMail = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
      strFilter = oMail.SenderEmailAddress
  
Set myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
     txtSearch = "from:(" & Chr(34) & strFilter & Chr(34) & ") OR to:(" & Chr(34) & strFilter & Chr(34) & ")"
     myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
 
Set myOlApp = Nothing
 
End Sub

Search for All Contact Addresses

This version of the macro search for messages from all three email addresses on a contact, if additional addresses exist.

Sub SearchByAddress()
 
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim strFilter As String
Dim oContact  As Outlook.ContactItem
 
Set ns = myOlApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
 
Set oContact = ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
 
' use oContact.FullName to search on the name
strFilter = Chr(34) & oContact.Email1Address & Chr(34)

If oContact.Email2Address <> "" Then
strFilter = strFilter & " OR " & Chr(34) & oContact.Email2Address & Chr(34)
End If

If oContact.Email3Address <> "" Then
strFilter = strFilter & " OR " & Chr(34) & oContact.Email3Address & Chr(34)
End If
  
Set myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

txtSearch = "from:(" & strFilter & ") OR to:(" & strFilter & ")"
myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Search txtSearch, olSearchScopeAllFolders
 
Set myOlApp = Nothing
 
End Sub

Search Journal

If you are still using Journal, you can tweak the macro to search the journal for items associated with the contact. Change the contact field to Full name and the folder to journal.

strFilter = oContact.FullName
Set myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderJournal)

' change the search filter to look for the contact name
txtSearch = "contactnames:(" & strFilter & ")"

Valid Search Scopes

Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 use the following search scopes:

Outlook 2007 users are are limited to olSearchScopeAllFolders and olSearchScopeCurrentFolder.