Microsoft Outlook - Favorite Folders and Search Folders
Favorite Folders and Search Folders are two tools in Outlook that are very helpful when it comes to being more productive. Users should be aware of both the usefulness of these folders as well as the danger of not understanding how they work.
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Favorite Folders
Favorite Folders are used to provide users with quick access to mail folders that are used on a regular basis. They are located at the top of the Navigation Pane on the left side of the Outlook window. There are four default folders in the Favorite Folders list. They are: Sent Items, Inbox, For Follow Up and Unread Mail. Two of these, For Follow Up and Unread Mail, are Search Folders. These will be discussed in more detail in the second part of this Tip. Favorite Folders are actually mirror images of folders in a users All Mail Folders list. That is, when a mail message is added to a folder in the Favorite Folders list, it will also be in that folder in the All Mail Folders list. The same is true for deleting items from folders. Regardless of where the change in the contents of a folder takes place, it will affect the folder in both locations since they are really the same folder.
To Add a folder to the list of Favorite Folders, go to the folder in the Inbox, and right-click on the folder. Next select Add to Favorite Folders.
Once the folder is added to the Favorite Folders list, it will still show in the All Mail Folders list. In the image below, the "eLearning Working Group" folder is shown in both the Favorite Folders list and under All Mail Folders. Notice it is a sub-folder in the "LTDC" folder. I added it to my Favorite Folders list because I am filing mail messages in that folder multiple times a day right now, and I want quick access to it without having to keep the LTDC folder expanded, or having to expand and collapse the LTDC folder every time I want to add an item to the eLearning Working Group folder.
Important - If a folder in the Favorite Folders list is deleted, it is also deleted from the All Mail Folders list. The contents of that deleted folder cannot be recovered.
Removing a folder from the Favorite Folders list must be done by right-clicking on the folder in the Favorite Folders list and selecting Remove from Favorite Folders. This will remove the folder from the Favorite Folders list, but not from a user's All Mail Folders list. If a folder in the Favorite Folders list is deleted, it is also deleted from the All Mail Folders list.
The order folders are listed in the Favorite Folders list can be changed. One way is to right-click on the folder and select Move Up in List or Move Down in List. Those options are shown in the image above.
The other method is to simple click on a Favorite Folder and drag it to a new location in the list. This way the list of folders can be alphabetized or listed in any other order the user prefers.
Finally, Favorite Folders do not have sub-folders.
Search Folders
Search Folders are folders that are displayed with a magnifying glass on the folder.
As mentioned above, there are two Search Folders included by default in the Favorite Folders list. There are actually three default Search Folders in the Navigation Pane, and they are located in the Search Folders folder, near the bottom of the Inbox. They are: Unread Mail, For Follow Up, and Large Mail. Search Folders,by design, serve to filter mail messages by specific criteria. For example, if a user has any unread mail messages, the Unread Mail search folder can be selected and it will show only unread messages. The For Follow Up folder will show all messages that have been flagged. Notice when there are unread messages the total number is listed in parentheses and is blue. The number of unread messages in the Inbox is also listed in blue. The number of messages in the For Follow Up folder is listed in green, in brackets. The image below shows the Search Folders folder, including the colors mentioned above.
The With Attachments folder is a custom Search Folder. Users can create a custom Search Folder, using specific criteria to search the user's mailbox for messages meeting those criteria.
To create a Custom Search Folder, right-click on the Search Folders folder. Select New Search Folder.
The next steps can be helpful in two ways. The first is if user's accidentally delete one of the default Search Folders, the second is to create a new custom Search Folder.
The New Search Folder dialog box opens. To create a Search Folder to find items from Educause in my mailbox, I will select "Mail from Specific People" and then click on the Choose button. The Select Names dialog box opens and I will type the email address for Educause in the From box. If I was creating a Search Folder to find items from a UWC or UWEX person, I could select them from the list in the Select Names dialog box. Next click on the OK button. This will close the Select Names dialog box. Notice the address added using the Select Names dialog box will appear in the "Show mail from these people" box. Finally, click on the OK button.
Once the search folder is created, it will begin to search for items that match the criteria set for the Search Folder. All items matching the criteria are displayed in the new folder, organized by the folder where they are located in the user's mailbox. The results of the search for items from educause@educause.edu are shown below. Most of the folders shown are collapsed, but there are messages in those folders from educause.educause.edu.
Users can save Custom Search Folders for future use, or delete them once the needed item is found and opened.