Getting Instant Gratification with Instant Search Option in Outlook

In office 2007 there is a new feature “Instant Search” that helps you to find items more instantly. When you ran Outlook first, you noticed that a prompt message will open in a popup box asking you to index Outlook. If you probably clicked “Yes”, in which you just quite sure about what does that meant. Creating an index for Outlook means you will able to find things more quickly. Instant Search in Outlook is based upon accessing indexed content which contains all your items and attachments. Outlook continues to index new content in the background, when initial indexing takes place. Instant Search is accessible from Outlook Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, Folder List and Journals views. When you click any of these items you will see Instant Search bar displayed prominently at the top of your item list.

Enabling Instant Search

Instant Search involves certain MS Windows search mechanisms in order to function. If you have Windows Vista then you are in good luck, as Windows Vista already contains Desktop Search due to which Instant Search is enabled automatically. If you don’t have Windows Vista then Windows Desktop Search feature cannot be installed, when first time you ran Outlook a popup box will appear with prompt message to download the software. Go ahead and to do so. After downloading, restart the Outlook in order to use Instant Search feature to function. If you do not enable the Instant Search, so you are not able to search faster as compared to Instant Search feature.

Fiddling with Instant Search Options

If you want to change Instant Search Options, go to Tools and select Instant Search, then click on Search Options from the main menu bar. Click on the arrow from the Instant Search pane and then Select Search Options. A Search Options window will appear which is divided into several parts.

• Indexing:—Indexing is the main reason that Outlook Instant Search work faster, as it installed all the Outlook data and keep information about content of various item. When you search something using Instant Search feature, at that time this information speed up the process of searching.
• Search:— By default, search result will appear in Instant Search pane, the result list become much shorter when you type more. And you can also speed up your search by limiting the number of results. 
• Deleted Items:— When you select the check box in deleted item section of the Search Option dialog box, so you can have a look on Outlook through your deleted items. As this option is not enabled by default because Outlook thinks that you don’t need to search through deleted items. If you want to search through deleted item, first you place a check mark to this item.
• Instant Search Pane:— By default, Instant Search searches in your current folder, after the result will display you can select the other folder by clicking the” Try Searching Again in All Mail Item” option. If you choose the “All Folders” option, Instant Search looks into your entire Outlook folder without prompting you.