Search for items or files in a SharePoint list or library - Outlook

Warning: You are viewing this page with an unsupported Web browser. This Web site works best with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, Firefox 1.5, or Netscape Navigator 8.0 or later. Learn more about supported browsers.

Email this link

Printer-Friendly Version Bookmark and Share

Search for items or files in a SharePoint list or library

Applies to: Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

After you connect a SharePoint list or library to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you can search for list items or files, such as your Microsoft Office Word 2007 documents. You search the content on your SharePoint site similar to the way that you search an e-mail message or other items that you create in Outlook.

Note The features described in this article work with SharePoint sites that are running Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. If you are not sure which versions of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies are running on the server, ask the server administrator.

Results returned by searching SharePoint library

You can use Instant Search to search a SharePoint list or library that is connected to Outlook.

Files and list items appear in the message list just as e-mail messages do.

Before you begin, you must connect the list or library on your SharePoint site to Office Outlook 2007.

Show Connect your SharePoint list or library to Outlook

In a Web browser, open the list or library that you want to search on the SharePoint site.
If you cannot locate your list or library, click View All Site Content, and then click the name of the list or library.
On the Actions menu , click Connect to Outlook.
When you are prompted to confirm that you want to connect the SharePoint list or library to Outlook, click Yes.
In Outlook, the list or library is added to the folder list in a new folder called SharePoint Lists.

To use all the features of Instant Search, you may need to download certain Microsoft Windows search components. You can search without the components, but performance and functionality are limited.

Show Enable the Instant Search feature

When you start Office Outlook 2007, you may be prompted to download software from the Microsoft Update Web site. The component to download is Windows Desktop Search 3.0.

To enable Instant Search, either click Download in the prompt or click Click here to enable Instant Search in the Instant Search pane to go to Microsoft Update. If you do not see Click here to enable Instant Search, you already have the necessary components and Instant Search is enabled.

Find links to more information about search and SharePoint lists and libraries in the See Also section. Use the following procedure to search for items in a SharePoint list or library:

In Mail, in the Navigation Pane, under SharePoint Lists, select the name of your list or library, such as Shared Documents.
In the Instant Search box , type your search text.
Files or list items that contain the text that you typed appear in the Instant Search Results pane.
To narrow down your searches, you can enter additional criteria. In the Instant Search pane, click Expand .

Tip To see more search choices, including recent search text and options for searching, click the arrow in the Instant Search box. If you index the files in your library, your searches will be faster.

Top of Page