Using the Search Function in Outlook
To use the search function in Outlook effectively, follow the below guides to ensuring Outlook knows exactly where to search for your query.
When the search bar is first pressed at the top, it expands to show a few different options for narrowing your search as well as providing suggested actions. Below is a breakdown of each:
1. The dropdown to the left of the search bar allows you to change where the search tool will look. By default, the search tool will attempt to search in the Current Mailbox
Current Folder Searches the currently selected folder. This is helpful if you know the exact folder the mail you're looking for is located (i.e. you know it's in the deleted folder)
Subfolder All subfolders of the currently selected folder (i.e. folders created under the inbox folder)
Current Mailbox Searches all of your mailbox, including the Deleted Items folder
All Outlook Items Will search all of Outlook including actions (i.e. Signature Line, Automatic Replies, etc.)
Favorites Will search any folders saved in your favorites
2. The dropdown to the right of the search bar allows you to filter your search further
Search In allows you to change the location of your search (this basically does the same thing as 1 above)
Attachments allows you to select filter whether the email had an attachment in it (if yes, it will only return emails with attachments in them)
Attachment Contain will search the attachment for anything typed in the box
From allows you to filter emails from a specific sender
Body allows you to filter emails containing specific text in the body
Received narrows the search to the dates you specify in the boxes
Subject allows you to filter emails containing specific text in the subject line
To allows you to filter emails sent to a specific person
For example, if I was searching in my Inbox folder for an email from Shelley Carpenter that contained an attachment with financials that she sent me this month, I would fill out the query as such:
3. Provides search suggestions based on frequent searches
4. Lists your top 3 searched individuals. Clicking on one of these will bring up your conversation history with that person which is only Teams chats.
5. Provides you with your recently used action. This is very helpful since you will most likely always have Signatures located here
6. Suggested actions will also most likely contain the Signatures action along with suggestions based on your use
Mailbox Cleanup/Management
Outlook has a data limit for each person's mailbox. Once this limit is reached, you will no longer be able to receive or send mail. Proper cleanup and maintenance of your mailbox is paramount to ensure this does not happen.
There are two main methods to keep your mailbox clean: Archiving and Deleting
The main difference between the two is that archiving allows for quick access to old emails while deleting is more permanent (all email is backed up, so even deleting it does not mean it's gone for good). As such, archiving should be used when you believe you will need to quickly reference the email in the future. Deleting should be reserved for emails you believe will never need to be referenced again and are okay with getting rid of (again, email is backed up so it's not entirely gone, but if it needs to be retrieved the process to do so is very slow).
To Archive Email
1. Select the email in the inbox that you would like to archive. If there are multiple emails, or a range of emails you want to archive all at once, you can select the email you can select the first email, scroll to the end of the range you would like to archive, hold Shift and select the end of the range. This will select the everything in between.
2. In the Outlook ribbon, in the Home tab and the Delete group is the Archive button
3. Press the button to archive the selected emails
4. To access these emails, go to the Archive Folder on the left folder selection
To Delete Email
1. Follow step 1 above to select a range of emails you would like to delete
2. In the Outlook ribbon, in the Home tab and the Delete group is the Delete button
3. Pressing the Delete button will move the emails to the Deleted Items Folder which does not actually remove the emails from your mailbox data
4. Select the Deleted Items Folder on the left navigation pane
5. From here, click on the Folder tab on the ribbon and press the Empty Folder button to remove everything from your Deleted Items Folder
6. A window appears to verify the deletion, press Yes