Tip 272: Creating Custom Searches

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 to do this?

Search folders, Advanced find, or Views can do this easily.

1. Right click on the Search folder and choose Create Search Folder (or open the Advanced Find dialog or create a new filtered view and skip to step 6.)
2. Select the last item in the Search folder dialog, custom search folder
3. Click the Choose at the bottom of the dialog.
4. Enter a name for the Search folder
5. Click the Criteria button
6. Select the Advanced tab
7. Type Sent in the Field field (or select it from the Field button dropdown)
8. Select On of before in the Condition field
9. Type ""1 month ago"" (without quotes) in the Value field
10. Click Add to list then Ok.
11. Click the Browse button
12. Remove the check from the top level of your mailbox
13. Add a click to the Sent folder.
14. Click Ok twice to save the Search folder

Click on the row of field names in Search folders and choose Arrange By, To, to group by recipients.

You can also create custom views to control how the messages are sorted or grouped.  Older versions of Outlook don't have an Arrange By menu, but you can customize the Advanced Find view by right clicking on the row of field names.

If you use Advanced Find, you can save the search by selecting File, Save Search.

Published July 7, 2005. Last updated on June 17, 2011.