Searching for Messages

Searching Basics Using the Message View Using the Photo View Using the Attachment View Refining Your Search Results More Search Tips

Using the Message View

For each message in the search results, the message view lists the sender, subject, date, folder, an indication of whether one or more attachments accompanied the message, and a snippet of the message containing the search string. You can hide the snippets, and you can access information about message attachments by hovering over the attachment icon.

An example of the message view of search resultsEnlarge

The message view has the same check boxes, buttons, menus, and page navigation as the view of any mail folder. You can click on any message to display the full message content.

For each message on the list, the words that met the search criteria are highlighted. For example, if you search for the string "rob", your search results might look something like this:

An example of highlighted search terms

 

Here’s How

  1. Click the Hide snippets link at the bottom of the Search Results page.

    Click the Hide snippets link.

    The search results appear without the snippets.

    Search results with snippets hiddenEnlarge

  2. To show the snippets again, click the Show snippets link.

    Click the Show Snippets link.

  3. Hold the mouse pointer over the attachment icon of any message that includes attachment(s) to view additional information about the attachment(s).

    Hovering over the attachments icon

    You can click:

    • View Attachments to display the Attachments section of the message

    • A photo thumbnail or file name to display the full-size image

    • A non-photo thumbnail or file name to begin the downloading process for the attachment

    • Save to Computer to save an attachment to your computer

 

What’s Next

Look at each of the other views of your search results:

Also, you can refine your search results with additional options.

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Words to Know

  • Attachment: a separate file included as part of an email message; for example, a multimedia or document file.
  • Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in BT Yahoo! Mail or bookmarks in the Bookmarks Sidebar module.
  • Snippet: a few lines of text from the body of an email message, displayed in search results.