Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Outlook 2010 - find a folder


OK… this isn’t a SharePoint topic – but I was frustrated by this issue and it became a catalyst to find an answer and then share that finding.   Hope it helps someone….

In our efforts to organize our emails, we can get carried away with nested folders in our Inbox Cabinet.   Maybe you're one of those people who take great pride in keeping your Inbox clean by filing away important emails.  I commend you.

But sometimes you need to file a new email into a nested folder and you just can't remember the parent folder.   There isn't an obvious way to search for a folder name - but there is a way you can discover the path to your nested folder.

The trick lies in searching for an email term that likely resides in the folder you want to locate.

To illustrate, let's assume you created a nested folder called "donor sites".   You don't recall what parent folder - or complex hierarchy of folders - in which it may reside.

Start in your inbox, and search for a likely term contained in emails within your donor sites folder - perhaps "charity".
 

 
From the initial results, click "try searching again in All Mail Items".  Now look for the desired folder name in the "In Folder" column.  (If you are not displaying the In Folder column - see how to add,remove, or move a column).

 

Open (double click) that email in the desired folder and press Ctrl+Shift+F to open Advanced Search.   Next click the Browse button to see a list of folders.   Ta-da!  You have just discovered the path to your nested folder.
 


 
It would be nice if Outlook could search for folder names - but until that day arrives, this is one method I've found to achieve that goal.

 


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