Tip 919: Search Tools Ribbon is Missing

An Outlook user wondered what happened to his search ribbon: "I want to get the Search tools ribbon back. I have ribbons showing for everything except Developer and Search. I enabled the Developer ribbon, however, the Search ribbon won't display when I enable it under Outlook options, Customize Ribbon pane. The Main Tabs section does not have Search Tools listed, and under Tools Tabs, Search tools is enabled but is not visible in the main ribbon."

The Search ribbon in Outlook 2010 is a “context ribbon”. This means the Search ribbon is visible only when you are searching. If you click in the Search field (or press Ctrl+E), the search ribbon will become visible and when you leave the field, it disappears. This is by design, to reduce clutter on the ribbon. (Yes, I know, Ctrl+F is used for Find in every other Windows program, but Outlook uses Ctrl+F for Forward.)

If you want the Search ribbon to be visible all the time, you can customize the ribbon and add Search as a new tab. The buttons are 'live' and the cursor will jump into the search field when you click on one of the buttons.

To make the Search ribbon persistant

1. Go to File, Options, Customize Ribbon.
2. In Choose commands from: select Tool Tabs. (In Customize the ribbon, Main tabs is selected.)
3. Select Home (Journals) on the right side.
4. Select Search on the left and click Add to place Search ribbon after the Home tab when viewing all folder types.

Or choose only the Search commands you need visible (like Advanced find) and add them to a custom ribbon.

If you prefer it as the last ribbon, select Addins instead.

Published October 6, 2011. Last updated on October 31, 2011.

Related posts:

If the ribbon in Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2013, or on open items in Outlook 2007, is missing, you have the ribbon minimized. When tOutlook's File tab is active, not the Home tab Following up on the earlier the tip about using natural language in search folder criteria, this tips explains how to create a cusTip 448: Create Custom Search Folders Say you want to find all email you sent more than 1 month ago and sort (or group) it by the recipient. What's the best way toTip 272: Creating Custom Searches Tip 13: Hyperlink Toolbars