How might one create custom "Smart Folders" in Outlook 2011 Mac?

Question

As soon as was possible, I left Entourage in favor of Outlook 2011 Mac. I'm using Exchange 2010.

I seem to recall being able to create custom "Smart Folders" when I used Outlook on Windows, but can't seem to find a way to do it in Outlook 2011 on Mac. The closest I've seen was to use Filters on a folder, but that doesn't seem to include sub-folders, and I can't find a way to save it to come back to later.

What I would ultimately like is a single view that shows me anything that is flagged or unread, from any folder. I use server-side rules extensively to sort mail into different folders, so aggregating across all folders is important.

I accomplished this in Entourage by creating one saved search that showed flagged items from any folder, another that showed unread items from any folder, and then a third (which I would use as my primary view) that aggregated the contents of these other two custom views.

Anyone have any suggestions, or am I missing something obvious?

Solution 1

Use raw queries. For flagged or unread mails:

(com_microsoft_outlook_flagged = 1) || (com_microsoft_outlook_unread = 1)

Important note: Do not use this folder with the "mark as read immediately" option, as seen here:

This results in a continuous mark as read -- remove from view -- show next message -- mark as read cycle, until everything is marked as read and you have no idea what you've now missed. Instead, I've switched to the 2nd option displayed that marks as read when you select a different message.

Solution 2

There is a good description on this site:

1. Click into the search field
2. A new ribbon called search should appear; click on it
3. Click Advanced and create your filters
4. Click Save; a new smart folder with the name untitled should appear
5. Double click the folder if you want to rename it

Comments

[user3333603]

outlook 2011 for mac hasn't been released to everyone yet, has it? it's only in rtm I think.

[Adam Tuttle]

Volume licensing customers have access. :)

[Admin]

Outlook 2011 needs an "OR" operator for sure... biggest missing component in both rules and smart folder creation - BIG MISTAKE Microsoft.

[Adam Tuttle]

This gets me part of the way there -- I now have a smart folder that aggregates unread mail from all folders, and another that shows all flagged-for-follow-up mail... is there a way to combine them into one view? I don't see a way to use an OR operator when combining rules in the creation of a new smart folder, so that I could say Unread -OR- Flagged.

[Grzegorz D.]

Thanks a lot! :) Microsoft couldn't make this more complicated... :/ This could be so easy like right-click on Smart Folders and pick New Smart Folder...