How To Search For Exact Phrase In Outlook (And Other Search Tips)

Key Takeaways

If you want to look for an exact phrase that appears anywhere in all your received emails, then enclose your phrase in quotation marks to return accurate search results. [More…]

If you want to search for an exact phrase within a particular part of the email — for instance, the subject line — then use search operators. [More…]

If you want to search for an exact phrase in all mailboxes in your organization and export the results, you will need to run a Content Search in your Compliance Admin Center. [More…]

While the search feature in Microsoft Outlook is exceptionally powerful, it’s not so intuitive. Searching for items in your mailbox can be very challenging, particularly if you have years of emails to search through. Fortunately, it’s very easy to search for an exact phrase in Outlook.

How to search for an exact phrase in Outlook:

  • Open the desktop version of Outlook.
  • Click the “Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Click the Search dropdown arrow.
  • Select which mailbox to search in (if required).
  • Enter the phrase in quotation marks into the “Body” or “Subject” text box.
  • Then click the “Search” button.

How to search for an exact phrase in Outlook Web Access (OWA):

  • Open the web version of Outlook.
  • Click the “Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Click the Search dropdown arrow.
  • Select which mailbox to search in (if required).
  • Enter the phrase in quotation marks into the “Keywords” or “Subject” text box.
  • Then click the “Search” button.

Alternative for desktop and OWA:

  • Click the “Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Type your phrase in quotation marks.
  • Then press ↵ Return on the keypad.

We also created a video that walks you through searching for exact phrases in Outlook, as well as several other cool tips that help you sort through your emails. Give it a watch here:


Overview: searching for an exact phrase in Outlook

To demonstrate the search function in Outlook, we will be searching for a specific phrase. The phrase that we are looking for is “Social Media Today” and we are looking for all emails which contain that phrase in the subject line.

In the image below, we can see the phrase in the “From” line, but not the “Subject” line.


How to search for an exact phrase in Outlook (Desktop)

If you want to search for an exact phrase in Outlook, and you’re not sure where the phrase is located — in the body, subject line, or attachments — then typing your phrase in quotation marks into the “Search” bar should be sufficient.

However, if you want to narrow down the search parameters and avoid seeing irrelevant results, it would be better to use the advanced options.

Simple solution

  • First, open the desktop version of Outlook.
  • Click on the “Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Then type in your phrase within quotation marks.
  • Finally, press the Return key on your keypad.

The simple solution should return emails containing the exact phrase somewhere in the email. However, we want to return emails which have the phrase in the subject line only. To achieve that, we need to use the advanced search features.

Advanced solution

  • Open the desktop version of Outlook.
  • Click the Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Click the Search dropdown arrow. (1)
  • Select which mailbox to search in (if required).
  • Enter the phrase in quotation marks into the “Subject” text box. (2)
    • If your phrase is more likely to occur in the main content, type inside the “Body” box.
  • Then click the “Search” button. (3)

In the image below, we will compare the results from the simple and advanced searches. You will notice that in the simple search, there are results which contain the phrase in the “From” and “Body” sections, but not the “Subject” line. If you only want to see emails with the phrase in the subject line, you must use the advanced search.


How to search for an exact phrase in Outlook (OWA)

If you want to search for an exact phrase in Outlook, and you’re not sure where the phrase is located — in the body, subject line, or attachments — then typing your phrase in quotation marks into the “Search” bar should be sufficient.

However, if you want to narrow down the search parameters and avoid seeing irrelevant results, it would be better to use the advanced options.

Simple solution

  • First, open the web version of Outlook.
  • Click on the “Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Then type in your phrase within quotation marks.
  • Finally, press the Return key on your keypad.

The simple solution should return emails containing the exact phrase somewhere in the email. However, we want to return emails which have the phrase in the subject line only. To achieve that, we need to use the advanced search features.

Advanced solution

  • Open the web version of Outlook.
  • Click the Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • Click the Search dropdown arrow. (1)
  • Select which mailbox to search in (if required).
  • Enter the phrase in quotation marks into the “Subject” text box. (2)
    • If your phrase is more likely to occur in the main content, type inside the “Keyword” box.
  • Then click the “Search” button. (3)

In the image below, we will compare the results from the simple and advanced searches. You will notice that in the simple search, there are results which contain the phrase in the “From” section, but not the “Subject” line. If you only want to see emails with the phrase in the subject line, you must use the advanced search.


How to search for your phrase using Advanced Find in Outlook

If you still can’t find the email you’re looking for, try using Advanced Find, which allows you to add a list of search criteria, among other additional search features.

info Note: Advanced Find is only available in the desktop version of Outlook

  • To open Advanced Find, press Ctrl + Shift + F on your keypad.
  • Alternatively, click the Search” bar at the top of the window.
  • The “Search” menu will appear at the top.
  • Click “Search Tools” in the ribbon.
  • Then select “Advanced Find” from the dropdown menu.

There are three tabs in Advanced Find, namely “Messages,” “More Choices,” and “Advanced.” With these options, you will be able to filter your emails with incredible accuracy. This feature is therefore useful if you’re looking for very specific emails.

In this guide, we have been searching for the phrase “Social Media Today” in the subject line of an email. So far, our search has returned two results. However, we now want to filter the results so that only emails flagged as complete will be returned. That is something you can do in Advanced Find.

  • Click on the “Advanced” tab. (1)
  • If you want to change the search location, click the “Browse” button. (2)
  • Select where you want to search.
    • The default search location is the folder you are currently viewing.
    • There are small checkboxes to select additional folders.
  • When you’ve selected your desired search location, click the “OK” button. (3)
  • To find the email we’re searching for, we need two criteria:
    • The Subject of the email.
    • The Flag Status set to “complete.”
  • Click the “Field” button. (1)
  • Hover over “Frequently used fields” at the top of the list. (2)
  • We need to add a “Subject” and a “Flag Status” to the list of criteria.
  • To add a subject, go to Field > Frequently used fields > Subject. (1)
  • Select “phrase matches” from the “Condition” dropdown list. (2)
  • Enter your search phrase into the “Value” box. (3)
  • Then click the “Add to List” button. (4)
  • To add a flag status, go to Field > Frequently used fields > Flag Status. (1)
  • Select “equals” from the “Condition” dropdown list. (2)
  • Select “Completed” from the “Value” dropdown list. (3)
  • Click the “Add to List” button. (4)
  • Then click the “Find Now” button to perform the search. (5)

The advanced find produces one result, which matches both our criteria: “Social Media Today” in the subject line and a flag status set to “Completed.”

If you’re looking for something very particular, Advanced Find is an excellent built-in feature. However, it might be unnecessarily complicated depending on what you’re looking for. Instead, you can use search operators to narrow down your Outlook search results, which I’ll explain next.


How to search for an exact phrase in Outlook using search operators

Advanced Find is an excellent feature for narrowing down searches, but it’s not very handy for finding emails in a pinch. However, the search’s logical operators provide an alternate way of narrowing down search results in Outlook.

Search operators include “subject:,” “cc:,” and “from:,” which can quickly narrow down search results without using the Advanced Find feature.

There are a range of search operators you can use to quickly refine your search in Outlook. Please view the table below for some of the most commonly used search operators.

Search OperatorPurpose
From:[name or email address]Use the “From:” search operator to search for emails from a certain person. For example, you might type: “From:Joe Bloggs” [without the quotation marks] into the search. This will bring up all the emails you’ve received from Joe Bloggs.
Hasattachment:[yes/no]Use the “Hasattachment:” search operator to search for emails with or without attachments. For example, type “Hasattachment:yes” [without the quotation marks] to find emails with attachments.
Attachment:[file type]Use the “Attachment:” search operator to search for different types of attachments. For example, you could type “Attachment:docx” [without the quotation marks] to find emails with .docx attachments. You can do this for any file type, such as .mp3 or .pdf.
Subject:[Word(s) to search]Use the “Subject:” search operator to bring up emails with certain words in the subject. For example, typing “Subject:Vodafone” [without the quotation marks] would bring up all emails with the word “Vodafone” in the subject. By surrounding the word/phrase with quotation marks [e.g., subject:”Vodafone bill”] the search would bring up all emails with that exact phrase in the subject.
Hasflag:[true/false]Use the “Hasflag:” search operator — followed by either “true” or “false” — to find items that are either flagged or not flagged. For example, “Hasflag:true” [without the quotation marks] would bring up all flagged emails.

There are a range of search operators available — those above are just some of the most widely used. If you’re trying to find an email in a pinch, these search operators can come in very handy.

info Note: you can also use numerous search operators at the same time. For example, you could type the following into the Outlook search bar:

from:joe bloggs subject:bill attachment:docx

Performing the above search would bring up all emails fromJoe Bloggswith the wordbillin the subject and a.docxfile attached.

In the image below, we typed subject:”hubstaff” flagstatus:completed into the search bar. For an exact phrase match, be sure to type your search keywords inside quotation marks. The result returned an email that matched our criteria.

When you know how to use search operators, you can narrow down your search without using Advanced Find.


If you’re a Compliance admin or an eDiscovery manager, you can search for emails using eDiscovery or Content Search. While this method is not ideal for performing basic mail searches, it can be useful for exporting search results from organization mailboxes, which cannot be achieved in Outlook.

Important: you will need to use Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer to download exported emails from your content search.

  • Firstly, open your Compliance Admin Center (Microsoft Purview).
  • If required, click the menu icon in the top left corner to expand the menu. (1)
  • Go down to the “Solutions” section and click on “Content search.” (2)
  • Then, click New search.” (3)

We’ve created two new emails for demonstration purposes. One email contains the word “freelancer” and the other contains the word “freelancers.” We want to return emails with the word “freelancer” but not “freelancers.”

In an Outlook search, placing quotation marks around “freelancer” would return results of emails containing the exact word. However, in a content search, quotations are unnecessary. All words placed inside the “keyword” box will be filtered precisely.

  • Create a “Name(1) and “Description(2) for your new search.
  • Then click the “Next” button. (3)
  • Toggle “On” the “Exchange mailboxes” location.
  • Then click the “Next” button.
  • Add your phrase into the “keywords” box.
  • Keywords will be treated as exact words.
  • Then click the “Next” button.
  • Next, click the Submit” button on the review page.
  • Then, click the Done” button.
  • You will now see your new search in the “Content search” list.
  • Click on the name of your new search. (1)
  • Click the “Actions” button in the fly-out pane. (2)
  • Then select “Export results” from the popup menu. (3)
  • You can leave the default settings, however, we’re going to select “Individual messages.”
  • Then, click the “Export” button.

info Note: if you export the results as a PST file,” you will need to import the file into Outlook.

To import a PST file into Outlook, open your Outlook desktop application and go to “File” in the top menu. Then click on “Open & Export” on the left menu. Choose “Open Outlook Data File,” then select your downloaded PST file in the file explorer.

arrow link You can use Stellar OST to PST Converter to access OST file contents.

  • Click the “OK” button when it says a job has been created.
  • Now click on “Export” at the top. (1)
  • Then select your new search export. (2)
  • Then click “Download results” in the right-hand pane. (3)

info Note: you may have to wait several minutes for the download to become available. You can click theRefreshbutton to check if the download is ready.

  • Click the “OK” button on the dialogue box to open the file.
  • On the first download, you will be required to install the “eDiscovery Export Tool.”
  • Once installed, click “Copy to Clipboard” to copy the export key. (1)
  • Paste the export key into the top input box in the eDiscovery Export Tool. (2)
  • Click the “Browse” button to select a download location. (3)
  • Then click the “Start” button. (4)
  • Click the link on the eDiscovery Export Tool to jump to the download location.
  • If you downloaded a PST file, you will need to import it into Outlook instead.
  • The messages or PST files will be located in the “Exchange” folder.
    • If you downloaded individual messages, go to Exchange > [email address] > Top of Information Store > Inbox
  • We have downloaded the email containing the word, “freelancer” but not “freelancers,” which demonstrates how to find an exact word or phrase in your Outlook emails using a Content Search.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I search for Contains in Outlook?

  • Press CTRL + SHIFT + F on your keyboard to open Advanced Find in Outlook.
  • Click on the “Advanced” tab.
  • Click the “Field” button and go to “Frequently used fields” > “Message” (or type “Message” into the box below “Field“).
  • Enter your search query into the “Value” box.
  • Click the “Add to List” button.
  • Then click the “Find Now” button.

How do I search for two exact words in Outlook?

You can use the “AND” operator to find two distinct words occurring in one email. For example, if you type the following into your Outlook search bar it will return emails containing “free” and “2pm” in the subject line:

subject:free AND subject:2pm

You can also use the “OR” operator instead of “AND” to return emails that contain either of those exact words.


Conclusion

The method you choose to search for an exact phrase in Outlook will depend on the accuracy you require. If you want all emails containing your exact phrase — whether in the subject line or body, etc,. — then simply enclosing your phrase in quotation marks will work.

If you are looking for an exact phrase in a particular location, such as in the subject line, then search operators or Advanced Find is the best solution.

If you want to search all mailboxes in your organization and export the results, you will need to use a Content search in your Compliance Admin Center.

Thank you for reading.

Jack Mitchell

Jack Mitchell has been the Operations manager at telecoms and MSP Optionbox for more than 4 years. He has played a crucial role in the company, from marketing to helpdesk, and ensures that the IT requirements of over 300 clients are continuously met. With his innate passion for technology and troubleshooting and a particular interest in Apple products, Jack now delivers the most comprehensive tech guides to make your life easier. You can connect with Jack on LinkedIn.

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