1. Let's begin by locating the search bar in Outlook. In windows desktop and web, the Outlook search bar is located at the top of the page.

2. Now that you have located the search bar, there are two ways to search your Outlook mailbox.

• Instant Search
• Advanced Search

Let's do an instant search. As an example, let's say you would like to locate a meeting that is coming up. Perhaps you remember a keyword in the meeting email message. So, you enter it in the search box.

Luckily, we we're able to find the meeting on the first search, but what if your email has thousands of messages and the meeting was further away from the search date? Well, you have many options to refine your search.

1. Notice that there are multiple locations you can search in the search bar. You can select where you would like to search for your email. Let's search All Outlook Items.

2. Locate the search navigation bar directly underneath the search box. Let's say we remembered another keyword in the subject of the meeting. Press Subject, see that the word subject appears in the search box, and type in your word.

4. Now, the email we we're looking for yielded as the first search result.

Now, let's take a look at all of the other options you can use in the search refine bar. You can choose to search:

• From - search a name of a sender
• Sent to - search a name of a receiver
• Subject - search a keyword in subject line
• Has attachments - click this if the email had attachments
• Unread - for emails that have not been opened yet
• Categorized - if you categorize emails  
• Flagged - if you flagged an email
• Important - if you marked an email as important

These refinement tools will allow you to narrow your search to a specific email in which you are looking for.

An advanced search allows you to simply refine your search beforehand. You can use the same refinement tools listed above, but they will be already included within your search in an advanced search.

1. To do an advanced search, simply go to the search bar, and select the drop down menu that is located to the right of the bar.

Additional advanced search options:

If something is important, flag it as a to-do item, so you know to follow-up. To do this simply click the flag on the email message.

Additionally, you could create an Important folder. (Visit our guide on creating folders in Outlook). Right click on the message and move the email to the Important folder.