Search partial string
Can I use wildcards when using the Instant Search feature in Outlook?
It appears that I have to type the EXACT word to find anything. In previous versions of Outlook I could also use only part of a word to find it.
Example:
On Subject line: Jims Warehouse x027886
With Outlook 2000 I could type 2788 and find the record.
With Outlook 2007 I have to type x02788 to find the record.
Correct, Instant Search doesn't provide that search option and will only find the items that contain a word that begins with your search string. In your example it would only find items which start with 2788.
Advanced Find
To do a query that also finds items that ends with 2788 or have 2788 somewhere in the middle, you'll have to do an Advanced Find query that has the "contains" condition.
To do this;
- Open Advanced Find (keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+F)
- Outlook 2007
Tools-> Instant Search-> Advanced Find... - Outlook 2010
Place your cursor in the Search field-> tab Search-> button Search Tools-> Advanced Find…
- Outlook 2007
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Press Field and select Frequently-used fields-> Subject
- Set Condition: to "Contains"
- Set Value: to "2788"
- Press "Add to List"
- Press "Find Now"
Of course you can also do this with different fields like Message and From. For each field that you want to search on you'll have to press "Add to List" to build your query.
Creating a custom search query for finding a part of a word or string via Advanced Find.
