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Did that urgent message from your IT administrator slip by you? Did you forget to read the important message from the boss — last week? Stop the endless scanning and scrolling!

Use Search Folders (Search Folders: Virtual folders that contain views of all e-mail items matching specific search criteria. The items remain stored in one or more Outlook folders.) to automatically gather messages that you choose (based on the criteria you set) and keep them handy where you can see immediately when new messages arrive and how many of the messages you have read.

Give Search Folders a test drive. Why not set up one for your important messages?

 Move essential folders into the Favorite Folders pane, right where you can easily see them and be reminded of important tasks and events.

 Keep folders that you use often where you can see them at a glance. You can easily see new items waiting for your attention.

• What is a Search Folder?

• Create a Search Folder for important mail

• Move a Search Folder to the Favorite Folders pane

What is a Search Folder?

A Search Folder is a virtual folder that contains e-mail items that match specific search criteria.

Outlook provides three default Search Folders — For Follow Up, Large Mail, and Unread Mail. You can also create your own Search Folder to sort and collect the messages that you get during your work day. Each Search Folder is a saved search that Outlook keeps up-to-date by monitoring all your folders for any item that matches the search criteria of the Search Folder. When new messages arrive in your Inbox, they remain in their delivery folder, but you can also view them in their Search Folder. You can read and reply to messages from a Search Folder as you usually would.

 Important   When you delete a Search Folder, the e-mail messages shown in the Search Folder are not deleted, because those items are not stored but are only viewed in a Search Folder. However, if you open or select an e-mail message shown in a Search Folder and delete the e-mail message, the message is deleted from the Outlook folder where it is stored.

Create a Search Folder for important messages

Find all your important messages fast. In Outlook, important messages are denoted by Importance: High . Use a Search Folder to collect these messages so you always know where to find them.

 Tip   After you create a Search Folder for important messages, move the folder to the Favorite Folders pane, so that you can see when new items arrive.

1. In Mail, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Search Folder.
2. Under Select a Search Folder, in the Reading Mail section, select Important mail.
3. In the Search mail in list, select the Outlook data file that this Search Folder includes, and then click OK.

    Note   Search Folders are specific to one Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox or Personal Folders file (.pst) (Personal Folders file (.pst): Data file that stores your messages and other items on your computer. You can assign a .pst file to be the default delivery location for e-mail messages. You can use a .pst to organize and back up items for safekeeping.). To search multiple Outlook data files, you must create a Search Folder for each data file.

The new Search Folder is created in the Navigation Pane under Search Folders.

Now that you have created one Search Folder, you can create as many others as you need. Use the categories that Outlook provides or create your own.

 Outlook provides a list of some common categories for Search Folders.

 Scroll to the bottom of the list for an option to create your own categories for Search Folders.

 Even if you choose an existing category, you can customize it to fit your needs.

Move a Search Folder to the Favorite Folders pane

Let the Favorite Folders pane hold the folders that you use every day. Prioritize your folders in the Favorite Folders pane in any order for quick, one-click access. Here, folders don't even need to be in alphabetical order, as they do in the rest of the Navigation Pane.

• Right-click the Search Folder that you want to move, and then click Add to Favorite Folders.

 Tip   To remove a folder from the Favorite Folders pane, right-click the folder that you want to remove, and then click Remove from Favorite Folders on the shortcut menu.

Find out more about the convenience of using Search Folders and the Favorite Folders pane. See Maximize your Mail pane space for more ideas.