Search for emails that begin a conversation in Outlook?

0

I would like to search for emails that:

  1. Arrived in a certain time frame.
  2. Were sent by a particular person.
  3. Started a conversation (e.g. were not replies).

The first two are easy enough to achieve using advanced search criteria. However, I can't figure out how to achieve number #3. I was expecting to find a search criterion entitled In-reply-to or similar, which I could specify should be absent/empty, but there isn't one.

Can anyone suggest a way to do this? I suppose I could request the subject doesn't contain RE:, but that's a little hacky and not internationalized.

Duncan Jones

Posted 2014-08-14T08:05:01.627

Reputation: 448

To be fair, the "RE:" search is working well for me in this instance. But it would be nice if there is a better solution to this. – Duncan Jones – 2014-08-14T08:10:47.740

Have you read Microsoft FAQ for Outlook Instant Search? http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/find-a-message-or-item-by-using-instant-search-HA001230585.aspx#BM2

– edumgui – 2014-08-14T08:12:51.783

@Santeador It wasn't one of the pages that came up in my research. Presumably because it doesn't appear to contain an answer to my question. Can you explain why you posted the link - did I miss something? – Duncan Jones – 2014-08-14T08:24:58.217

I'm sorry @Duncan, the link intended was http://help.outlook.com/en-us/140/Cc498709.aspx#aqs and I didn't see your comment. I think that your "hack" for "RE:" OR "FW:" is the best way.

– edumgui – 2014-08-14T08:47:58.100

I'm using an old version of Outlook, but if I go Tools, Macro,Visual Basic Editor, it takes me to a VBA project where I can write search functions. Not an answer because I don't have an example that does exactly what you want. – user165568 – 2014-08-14T11:21:48.713

Answers

1

You can create a view for a particular folder for that. Customize the folder's View and set this as a Filter (on SQL tab):

"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x1042001F" IS NULL

After that you'll be able to search this folder by time and sender or put these in your View's settings. You may also want to disable "Show as Conversations" in this folder to remove replies.

In order to search all mailbox, create a Search Folder and customize its view as described above.

Update: you can also try to experiment with Internet Headers like this:

"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x007D001F" <> 'Thread-Topic'

and you can combine multiple conditions by AND/OR.

thims

Posted 2014-08-14T08:05:01.627

Reputation: 8 081

Good suggestion. This seems to have mostly worked, but not in all cases. It seems to have pruned all the emails that have In-reply-to headers, but some email clients seem to use Thread-Topic and Thread-Index instead - any idea how to filter those too? – Duncan Jones – 2014-08-14T13:36:37.183

You can try to experiment with Internet Headers (updated the answer). – thims – 2014-08-14T14:14:26.267

Asked: 2014-08-14T08:05:01.627

Viewed: 463 times

Active: 2014-08-14T14:15:45.713