Finding the hidden Search options in Outlook 2011

One thing in Outlook 2011 that can be surprisingly hard to find for new users is the Search function. There’s a search field readily visible, but it only searches the currently selected folder. Why Microsoft made the user interface choice to hide the ability to search is somewhat of a mystery to me, but here’s how you access all of the other search options in Outlook 2011.

To search the current folder in Outlook 2011, you click in the Search This Folder blank and type in what you’re looking for.

Outlook will then give you selectable search options for what you typed in.

To do a more complex search, click in the Search blank and don’t type anything.

Once you click in the Search blank, a new Search tab will appear next to the Tools tab.

In the Search tab, you’ll have the option of searching:

Folder – Search within the current folder

Subfolders – Search within the current folder and all subfolders beneath it

All Mail – Search all email available to your Outlook email client

All Items – Search all items in Outlook, including email, calendar entries, to-do entries, address book contacts, etc.

For the searching, you’ll have a number of additional options available.