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Outlook Instant Search Queries

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› Outlook › Outlook Instant Search Queries

Last reviewed on June 22, 2018     8 Comments

While it is easy to use the predefined fields in Outlook, they don't give you access to all of the logical operators and supported query formats. You can select field from the ribbon to avoid typing the field name (or until you learn the field name) then edit the query. The More menu contains additional fields to choose from.
outlook search ribbon

Outlook's Search query syntax is used when the Instant Search feature is enabled and follows this basic form:
fieldname:your search criteria value
Use the logical operators AND, NOT, OR, <, >, = refine your search. Logical operators must be typed in uppercase letters.

Below are some of the common queries.

Search by Field Name

In most cases, you can type the Outlook field name (leave out the space in multiple-word field names):

from:john
firstname:mary

Search by Date

To search between two dates use the following format with any date field:
received:(>1/15/2010 AND <4/15/2010)
In the Calendar, use Start:
start:(>1/15/2010 AND <4/15/2010)

To include results from the dates, add an equal sign or use two periods between the dates:
received:(>=1/15/2010 AND <=4/15/2010)
received: (1/15/10..6/15/10)

Search by Item Size

To find messages of a certain size or within a size range use the greater then, less than, and equal signs or two periods:
size:10kb
size:=50KB<60kb
size:3mb..12mb

Operators

In addition to greater than (>), less than (<), and equal symbols (=), you can use comma's, AND, or OR between search terms. from:(mary NOT smith) cc:(mary AND sue) to:(mary OR billy)

Natural Language

Search recognizes days of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday), the months (March, April, May) as well as today, tomorrow, yesterday, week, next month, last week, past month, and coming year. You don’t even need to use the space: thisweek, nextmonth, lastweek, pastmonth, comingyear are valid in Instant Search.

More Information

How to Create a Unified Inbox View
How to create an Outlook search folder using VBA
Use Instant search to find messages from a contact

Outlook Instant Search Queries was last modified: June 22nd, 2018 by Diane Poremsky

Related Posts:

  • Search folders & Deleted items
  • Fields are Incorrect on the Instant Search More Button
  • Advanced Find is not going away just yet
  • Calculate Days Overdue and Days to Complete Tasks

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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Victor50
July 11, 2018 4:29 am

Hi, for some years now I used VBA instantsearch to find all mails to or from a selected mail with scope = olSearchScopeAllOutlookItems. and present the results in a new explorer instance. Recently I added two Exchange stores to Outlook. and noticed that sometimes the search froze for a long time so I tried to use olSearchScopeCurrentStore. This results in displaying a lot of mails, probably all. When I remove and repaste the search string by hand it gives the correct result (but the view is corrupted showing odd fields). Have tried a lot of different tricks, but can't get it working properly.

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Diane Poremsky
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Reply to  Victor50
July 11, 2018 10:54 pm

I'll see if I can repro. You are using cached mode with the exchange accounts, correct?

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Victor50
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
July 12, 2018 5:41 am

Yes, cached mode, Actually these are two accounts connected by the Kerio connector (to the same server), so that could pose/cause a problem. I went back to all stores and the freezing does not always happen. So you could wait reproducing, maybe I can find out more. If you could suggest which threads in process-explorer to watch maybe that would help. On the side: the mail I got didn't contain a link to this conversation or blog, only one to unsubscribe.

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KK
March 19, 2015 3:28 pm

It is possible to perform an Instant Search for Subject is exactly "Test subject" and not contains "Test subject"? Or does it require a very long string like subject:"Test subject" AND NOT subject:"Other test subject"

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KK
Reply to  KK
March 19, 2015 3:37 pm

I may have answered my own question. I see that subject:"Test subject" NOT subject:"Other test subject" produces the correct results in Windows Outlook 2010, but does not work for Mac Outlook 2011. I assume Instant Search syntax differs for the two versions, but the Mac advanced search option has the "is exactly" parameter I was looking for.

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Diane Poremsky
Author
Reply to  KK
March 20, 2015 9:38 am

Outlook windows also supports 'is exactly' - it's not case sensitive, so it will find upper or lower case usage of the keyword.
use subject:="test subject"

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Chris Brouwer
October 9, 2013 8:04 am

What's the syntax for a folder with an "empty" name ? I can select this in Advanced Find dialog, but how can I set the filter correctly using VBA ?

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Diane Poremsky
Reply to  Chris Brouwer
October 11, 2013 9:59 pm

Try "" - if that doesn't work, it might be using NULL. If that doesn't work, check the name using MFCMAPI.

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