![\"Search](\"http:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/images\/SearchFoldersDefault.png\")
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May 5, 2010<\/p>\n
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Are you using Search Folders in Outlook yet? If not, now may be a fantastic time to get acquainted with this powerful feature. This article discusses why, and shows you one Search Folder you can create that may greatly speed your ability to find mail, every day.<\/p>\n
What are Search Folders? Search Folders are virtual folders that consolidate mail from various places into one folder-like view. They are a bit magical, in that they don\u2019t move or duplicate mail; rather they display a virtual<\/em> copy of all mail that meets selectable search criteria.<\/p>\n Microsoft has included Search Folders in all versions of Outlook since version 2003, but few users take advantage of them\u2014and that\u2019s too bad as they can be very powerful. If you look in the lower left of your Outlook Navigation pane folder list, you will see a set of pre-delivered Search Folders, as in the figure above (you may need to scroll to see that group in your folder list, and you may need to click to expand the group).<\/p>\n The Real Power of Search Folders<\/p>\n While the pre-delivered Search Folders can be useful, the real power of Search Folders comes when you create your own, and that\u2019s what we are going to do below\u2014we are going to create one custom Search Folder that allows you to view and search all<\/em> your mail through one single folder.<\/p>\n Why might you want to do this? Well, have you ever looked for a recent e-mail by visually scanning your folders, but not been able to find it? If so, you ended up having to look through your Inbox, and then maybe in the Sent Items folder, and then maybe in several other folders, opening and scrolling through each one at a time. Sometimes the mail you want is part of a send-reply conversation<\/em> and you are not sure if the mail you seek is something that you<\/em> sent (so in Sent Items), or something they<\/em> sent (in some other folder). You could of course use an indexed search engine; but for recent mail, scanning a folder visually is sometimes the best way to find something.<\/p>\n Creating the All Mail Search Folder<\/p>\n So the Search Folder I show below creates a virtual folder that allows you to easily view one long scrolling list of all<\/em> your \u201crecent\u201d mail\u2014even up to year\u2019s worth\u2014no matter where the mail is actually stored in Outlook (with one caveat discussed below). It will make it much easier to find your mail when you are not sure where to look. It\u2019s virtual, so it does not duplicate any mail; it just gives you a very convenient single-folder view of all you mail, collecting it from all the folders it may be distributed in. I call it the All Mail Search Folder<\/em> and using it is a fantastic way to find mail.<\/p>\n The All Mail Search Folder is Useful Because:<\/p>\n One Caveat. <\/strong>Search Folders only consolidate mail from one mail store<\/em>, and that\u2019s an important limitation for a few of you. A mail store either means a mail server (Exchange), or a mail file (PST). That\u2019s not an issue if you are using my recommended folder configurations where all recent saved mail is on your main mail store (e.g. in the Processed Mail folder on Exchange or on your primary PST for non-Exchange installations; see Lesson 5 or Appendix A of the book\u2019s 2nd Ed.). However, if you split<\/em> your recent mail across<\/em> mail stores (e.g. you place your Inbox on your Exchange server but you place your recent saved mail in a personal folders file\u2014a PST), then this search folder won\u2019t include mail on that PST; nor will it include archived mail. But for most of us, that\u2019s not an issue when looking for recent mail.<\/p>\n How to Create the All Mail Search Folder<\/p>\n Next Steps<\/p>\n Since the All Mail Search folder is selected by default after you first create it, you\u2019ll now see the Search Folder contents in the main mail list window at the right of the folder list. Note that Outlook may churn a while as it builds this folder\u2019s contents from your various folders, but that only happens the first time you create it; you will not need to wait like this again in the future\u2014it is updated automatically from now on.<\/p>\n Also, the folder initially opens with mail grouped by source mail folder<\/em>, which is not very useful; so click on the Received column to see an Inbox-like date-based sorting.<\/p>\n From now on, if you are looking for an old mail item and you are not quite sure where it is, click on the new All Mail Search Folder in your folder list, and do your search there. You are much more likely to find what you are looking for, and much more quickly.<\/p>\n Place it in the Favorite Folders pane<\/p>\n Since the Search Folders group is located a bit low in your folder list, and since your folder list may be large, the new All Mail Search Folder may be hard to locate quickly. So I recommend, after you create it, you drag a link to this new Search Folder to your Favorite Folders pane; that way it\u2019s easy to get at quickly. The Favorite Folders pane (called Favorites in 2010) is the little sub-pane at the top of the Navigation Pane (see figure below). By the way, if you do not yet use this Favorite Folders pane, then you should try it\u2014it makes finding key folders in your folder list much easier. I drag a link to all my main folders there including my Inbox, Sent Items, Processed Mail, and even Deleted Items; you may want to do that too. Here\u2019s how mine looks:<\/p>\n If that sub-pane is not visible at the top of the Navigation pane, then go to View menu, then to the Navigation Pane sub-menu, and then select Favorite Folders at the bottom of that menu (Favorites in 2010).<\/p>\n That\u2019s it! Start using this new All Mail Search Folder today.<\/p>\n Other Facts about Search Folders<\/p>\n Using this custom Search Folder changes my opinion somewhat about using multiple topic-named folders. I am referring to my writeup in Lesson 5 of the book. There I assert strongly that using many topic-named Outlook folders to file mail can be a major waste of time. But this new Search Folder changes that somewhat. I still regard filing<\/em> into many multiple topic-named folders to be too slow to be practical for most people (unless you use add-in software like ClearContext<\/a>). However, I now admit that finding<\/em> mail in those folders can be greatly improved with this new Search Folder.<\/p>\n The power of this new All Mail custom Search Folder can be used in other ways. In next month\u2019s version of this Outlook Productivity Newsletter, I\u2019ll show you how to use AutoArchive to implement an automatic mail retention policy (automatically deleting old mail, selectively) so you can meet your corporate retention rules, should you have to do that (this idea courtesy of Donald Cappaert). The All Mail custom Search Folder is what makes this practical. More on that then.<\/p>\n And finally, it may be interesting to note that this search folder technology is what runs \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d in your To-Do Bar task list, and in the To-Do List folder inside the Tasks folder. This explains why these lists collect \u201ctasks\u201d from so many locations. See pg 348 in the Outlook book 3rd Ed. for more discussion of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 5, 2010 Are you using Search Folders in Outlook yet? If not, now may be a fantastic time to get acquainted with this powerful feature. This article discusses why, and shows you one Search Folder you can create that … Continue reading \n
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<\/p>\n![\"Favorites\"](\"http:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/images\/FavoriteFolders.png\")
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