Save an Outlook Search for Later
If you find yourself searching for the same stuff repeatedly in Outlook, save the search criteria in a file. That way, you don't have to enter the search criteria each time you run the search. Searches are saved in special files with the extension .oss (Office Saved Searches).
To save a search, start by creating a folder on your hard drive for storing .oss files (Office Saved Searches). You can create that folder by opening your ‘My Documents’ folder, and clicking on File, New, Folder and naming the folder something like ‘Outlook Searches’. Of course you can name the folder anything that you would like and place it any where that you can easily find it. In order to conduct a search you want to save, click Tools, Find, Advanced Find. After you complete the search, chose File, Save Search. You will see the Save Search dialog box in the Advanced Find dialog box. Locate the folder that you created to save your searches, enter a descriptive name for the search, and click OK. You can now close the Advanced Find dialog box.
When you want to use that same search criteria later on, all you have to do is click on Tools, Find, Advanced Find to open the Advanced Find window, choose File, Open Search in the window, and choose a saved search file in the Open Saved Search dialog box.
Last updated: 2/22/07