OL2000: Communicating with E-Mail: Part 10: Applying Custom Filters (310579)

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Applying Custom Filters

In the previous section, Outlook displayed only unread messages by applying a filter to the list of messages. Filters can help you find a particular message by allowing you to temporarily focus on a subset of the information in the message list. When you want to find a specific message, you can create your own filter. Let's look for the message that you received some time during the last seven days about a letter to Al Pine:

1. Choose Current View and then Customize Current View from the View menu to display the View Summary dialog box.
2. Click the Filter button to display this dialog box:
   
   
   
   More about filters
   
   If you receive tons of messages and need to search for a particular one, you may want to experiment with the other tabs in the Filter dialog box. On the More Choices tab, you can create a filter that looks for messages assigned to a particular category. You can also search for messages that have or have not been read, messages that have or don't have attachments, and messages that have a designated importance level. On the Advanced tab, you can set up more specific filtering criteria by clicking the Field button, selecting a message field from the drop-down list, and then specifying a condition that the field must meet by selecting an item from the Condition box. Next type a value for the field in the Value edit box, and then click Add To List to add this criteria to any others you have created. When you click OK twice, Outlook filters your message list and displays only those messages that meet the criteria specified in the Filter dialog box.
3. On the Messages tab, type letter in the Search For The Word(s) edit box.
4. Check that Subject Field Only is selected in the In edit box to limit the search to the Subject lines of the messages in the Inbox, and then type your name in the From box.
5. Click the arrow to the right of the Time box and select Received. Then click the arrow in the box to the right and select In The Last 7 Days.
6. Click OK twice. Outlook filters the message list according to your criteria and displays the results in the workspace.
   
   Notice that Outlook displays (Filter Applied) at the right end of the workspace title bar to remind you that you are not looking at the complete list of messages.
7. To redisplay the entire message list, right-click a column header and choose Customize Current View from the shortcut menu. Click the Filter button, click Clear All, and then click OK twice.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: