How to search (partial word) with wildcard in Outlook?
You might have noticed that wildcards are not supported by the Instant Search feature in Outlook. For example, you want to search for berry fruits with the keyword of *berry, it won’t find out emails containing the keywords of strawberry, blueberry, cranberry, etc. However, how could we search partial word with wildcards in Outlook? Try below workarounds:
- Search partial word with wildcard in one email in Outlook
- Search partial word with wildcard in all emails of a mail folder in Outlook
Search partial word with wildcard in one email in Outlook
This method is talking about searching partial word with wildcard in one email in Outlook. Please do as follows:
1. Shift to the Mail view, and double click to open the email where you will search with wildcard.
2. Click Message > Find. See screenshot:
3. In the opening Find and Replace dialog box, please click the More button to expand the search options.
4. Go ahead to check the Use wildcards option, type the keyword with wildcard in the Find what box, and then click Reading Highlight > Highlight All. See screenshot:
And now all character strings matching the keyword with wildcard are found and highlighted in the email body. See screenshot:
5. Close the Find and Replace button.
One click to enable Query Builder and easily search with multiple keywords in Outlook
Kutools for Outlook can help you enable the Query Builder in Advanced Find dialog box with only one click. Within the Query Builder tab, you can add multiple search keywords, and specify the logical relationship "AND" or "OR" amount these keywords.
Search partial word with wildcard in all emails of a mail folder in Outlook
Actually, there is no directly workaround to search partial word with wildcard in all emails of a mail folder in Outlook. However, we can configure the advanced find option, and search emails containing the specified partial of keywords in Outlook.
1. Shift to the Mail view, and open the mail folder where you will search with wildcard.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + F keys at the same time to open the Advanced Find dialog box.
Note: You can also open the Advanced Find dialog box by putting cursor in the Instant Search box and clicking Search > Search Tools > Advanced Find.
3. In the opening Advanced Find dialog box, please go to the Advanced tab, and:
(1) Click Field > All Mail fields > Subject, Message, or other fields as you need;
(2) Select the contains from the Condition drop down list;
(3) Type the partial of keyword you will search into the Value box;
(4) click the Add to List button.
And now the customized search criteria is added into the Find items that match these criteria box.
4. Click the Find now button. And now all emails containing the partial of keyword are found out and listed at the bottom of Advanced Find dialog box. See screenshot:
5. Close the Advanced Find dialog box.
Demo: search (partial word) with wildcard in one email or one mail folder
Tip: In this Video, Kutools tab is added by Kutools for Outlook. If you need it, please click here to have a 60-day free trial without limitation!
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