How do I search for a word within contact file?

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Guest

In previous version of Outlook/Contacts, I could do a "Find" and it would
pull up the contacts that contained the word I was looking for...the word may
have been anywhere within the contact's information (i.e. description, notes,
etc.). In this updated version, the "Find" function does not look into the
notes section. How can I "Find" a particular word that is embedded within a
contact?
 
I found the ability to secifically search the Notes field.
Clicked the contacts folder, went to tools -> find -> advanced find.
Went to the Advanced Tab ,
Then at the bottom of the screen is a Field button that produces a Pull -Down
menu - the first choice is Frequently Used Fields.

On this list, way down, is the Notes field.
Looks like to the right after choosing Notes is a Value field.
I assume you put your search criteria in there.
 
Julie -- I put up the post 2 below yours and have just answered Jason in the
post below yours -- same problem apparently. The post to this thread by
rhodes2010 sounds like he's not using Outlook 2007, but an earlier Outlook
version. I mentioned that MSFT has not been able to provide an answer, but a
gentle soul in India has promised to look into it further. I suspect that
it's a regression from past versions.
 
Like others, not being able to search all frequently used fields (i.e. Notes)
via instant find is a major oversight by Microsoft. Thanks to rhodes2010 I
can now use the advanced find to search for keywords in the notes field of
all contacts.

Personally I like instant find. However, it definitely needs to be brought
up to speed to at least previous Outlook functionality.

/howie
 
Outlook 2007 has a similar option to rhodes2010's: Select the Contacts
folder, then Tools - Instant Search - Advanced Find, then the Advanced tab,
Fields -> pick 'Notes' in list, etc. This is a pale shadow compared to the
convenience of instant-searching all the data in the Contacts table views
directly. Perhaps the default instant-search in Contacts table views should
be on structured fields (as it is now), but then the expanded instant-search
query builder can be used to *widen* the search to Notes, attachments, etc.
This would be a little counter-intuitive for some at first (since the query
builder is normally used to *narrow* the search), but would be most useful -
perhaps could have some indicator on the 'Notes' field in query builder to
show that this will widen instead of narrow the search. I hope that the
gentle soul in India is still listening.
 
Thanks for the info. I certainly hope that someone at Microsoft can see how
important search the notes field is!! I live by that function. My entire
contact list revolves around the fact that I can search all fields,
especially the notes. I'm glad to know that there is at least one pain in
the butt way to seach it, but I certainly hope they add the notes field to
the list of indexed fields!! Does any one else know of a way to make it
happen??
 
Categorize your contacts. You can use multiple categories for every contact. Then display your contacts by category.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Greg S asked:

| Thanks for the info. I certainly hope that someone at Microsoft can
| see how important search the notes field is!! I live by that
| function. My entire contact list revolves around the fact that I can
| search all fields, especially the notes. I'm glad to know that there
| is at least one pain in the butt way to seach it, but I certainly
| hope they add the notes field to the list of indexed fields!! Does
| any one else know of a way to make it happen??
|
| "LongtimeUser" wrote:
|
|| Outlook 2007 has a similar option to rhodes2010's: Select the
|| Contacts folder, then Tools - Instant Search - Advanced Find, then
|| the Advanced tab, Fields -> pick 'Notes' in list, etc. This is a
|| pale shadow compared to the convenience of instant-searching all the
|| data in the Contacts table views directly. Perhaps the default
|| instant-search in Contacts table views should be on structured
|| fields (as it is now), but then the expanded instant-search query
|| builder can be used to *widen* the search to Notes, attachments,
|| etc. This would be a little counter-intuitive for some at first
|| (since the query builder is normally used to *narrow* the search),
|| but would be most useful - perhaps could have some indicator on the
|| 'Notes' field in query builder to show that this will widen instead
|| of narrow the search. I hope that the gentle soul in India is still
|| listening.
||
|| "dickmill" wrote:
||
||| Julie -- I put up the post 2 below yours and have just answered
||| Jason in the post below yours -- same problem apparently. The post
||| to this thread by rhodes2010 sounds like he's not using Outlook
||| 2007, but an earlier Outlook version. I mentioned that MSFT has not
||| been able to provide an answer, but a gentle soul in India has
||| promised to look into it further. I suspect that it's a regression
||| from past versions.
 
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