Tracy van der Schyff

#Office365Challenge – Outlook Search Filter Tools – We live in times where we’re expected to do more while being exposed to more – and to make better decisions. If you’re not using the tools available to help you “focus” your information, you’ll be in trouble soon.

It’s not Information Overload, it’s failure to filter.

All credit to Hugh MacLeod for this great image.

In all of the Microsoft applications, I use search the most in Outlook. I honestly receive too many emails a day – to make sense of it all. Outlook has a couple of tools to help you find what you want, when you need it, fast.

Let’s take a look at the “Filter Emails” function, the first I’ll explore is “Send to Me or CC Me”. This really helps to focus first on the emails that requires your response immediately:

The “This Week” filter allows you to select a time period for search results:

Filter “Unread Mail” only shows messages not read yet:

Filter “Has Attachments” will only show emails with attachments:

That’s sure to help a bit!?!

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.