Community Knowledge Base

Advanced Search Overview

SmarterMail users can take advantage of SmarterMail's powerful and comprehensive indexing to search ALL folders within their mailbox. This includes folders outside of just "email" folders, such as in Contacts, Notes, Calendars, and Tasks. In addition, Advanced Search is performed outside of the mail interface, so users can continue using SmarterMail while the search progresses as well as view results once it completes. Search results are displayed with complete details (date/time, folder, etc.) making it easy to find the information you are looking for.

Advanced Search differs from a standard search as it allows users to add criteria to their search parameters so that specific items are returned. This criteria includes search words or phrases, To and From addresses, company names and addresses, birthdays, modification dates, start and end dates, and more.

Performing Advanced Searches

Once Advanced Search is selected, a modal window appears. Here, you select "where" you want to search: Everywhere, or within a specific area of SmarterMail. If you set Everywhere as your criteria, you simply enter your search string and SmarterMail will search throughout all areas. If you select a specific area to perform your search, such as Contacts, you'll want to add search criteria to help narrow down your results.

Using the Add Criteria dropdown, you pick the criteria you want to use for your search. This is based on where you're searching, and so it can include:

Searching Email

  • Search String: The words or phrases you want to search for. Note: Your search criteria may include letters and numbers. SmarterMail does not search for special characters such as "@," "#" or "%."
  • Folder: The specific Folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched.
  • Cc: The address a message was Carbon Copied TO.
  • Contains Attachments - Whether the email must (or must not) have an attachment.
  • From: The address a message was sent FROM.
  • Received After The Year and Month after which the message was sent. For example, if May 2012 is entered, only results AFTER May 31, 2012 will be returned.
  • Received Before The Year and Month before which the message was sent. For example, if January 2015 is entered, only results BEFORE January 1, 2015 will be returned.
  • Subject: The complete or partial Subject of the message that was sent.
  • To: The address a message was sent TO.

Searching Notes

  • Search String: - The words or phrases you want to search for. Note: Your search criteria may include letters and numbers. SmarterMail does not search for special characters such as "@," "#" or "%."
  • Folder: The specific Folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched.
  • Color - The color designation of the note.
  • Subject - The note's subject.
  • Last Modified Before - The last modified date. For example, if January 2015 is entered, only "last modified dates" BEFORE January 1, 2015 will be returned.
  • Last Modified After - The last modified date. For example, if May 2012 is entered, only "last modified dates" AFTER May 31, 2012 will be returned.

Searching Contacts

Using advanced search on Contacts gives you the ability to set up criteria based on every aspect available for a contact -- over 20 different criteria in all -- from their birthday through the website associated with the contact.

Searching Calendars

  • Search String: - The words or phrases you want to search for. Note: Your search criteria may include letters and numbers. SmarterMail does not search for special characters such as "@," "#" or "%."
  • Folder: The specific Folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched.
  • Calendar - The specific calendar you want to search. This can be your primary calendar, a shared calendar, a domain calendar, etc.
  • Ends After - The Year and Month after the appointment/event is set to end. For example, if May 2012 is entered, only results AFTER May 31, 2012 will be returned.
  • Ends Before - The Year and Month before the appointment/event is set to end. For example, if January 2015 is entered, only results BEFORE January 1, 2015 will be returned.
  • Starts After - The Year and Month after which the appointment/event is set to start. For example, if May 2012 is entered, only results AFTER May 31, 2012 will be returned.
  • Starts Before - The Year and Month before which the appointment/event is set to start. For example, if January 2015 is entered, only results BEFORE January 1, 2015 will be returned.
  • Subject - The name of the appointment/event.

Searching Tasks

  • Search String: - The words or phrases you want to search for. Note: Your search criteria may include letters and numbers. SmarterMail does not search for special characters such as "@," "#" or "%."
  • Folder: The specific Folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched.
  • Due After- The Year and Month after which the task is due. For example, if May 2012 is entered, only results AFTER May 31, 2012 will be returned.
  • Due Before - The Year and Month before which the task is due. For example, if January 2015 is entered, only results BEFORE January 1, 2015 will be returned.
  • % Complete - The completion percentage of the task.
  • Priority - The task's priority.
  • Starts After - The Year and Month after which the task is set to begin. For example, if May 2012 is entered, only results AFTER May 31, 2012 will be returned.
  • Starts Before - The Year and Month before which the task is set to begin. For example, if January 2015 is entered, only results BEFORE January 1, 2015 will be returned.
  • Status - The current status of the task.
  • Subject - The name of the task.

Once all choices have been made, use the Search button to initiate the search. The search results display in a separate pop-out window, with results listed in order. It's then possible to click on individual messages and open them in their own pop-out windows. (Messages must be opened individually -- it's not possible to check the box next to multiple messages and have them all open at once.) You can also select a message, right click on it, and download the raw EML file. Finally, it's possible to delete one or more messages by checking the box next to the message and using the Delete button. Messages deleted from Advanced Search will use whatever default deletion behavior you have chosen for your account. (I.e., moved to the Deleted Items folder, marked as deleted or marked as deleted and hidden.)