Search queries with special characters

Some emails I receive are having tags in the subject field formatted such as “<tag>”, “!tag” and “Ref id #12345”.
Instant Search does not seem to look at these characters which skews the search results.
How can I search for strings with special characters using Instant Search?

This is something you can’t do with Instant Search as the index of Instant Search is word-based only. When you want to include special characters in your search query, you’ll have to use the Advanced tab of Advanced Find.

1. Open Advanced Find (shortcut key: CTRL+SHIFT+F)
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Create the following search query
   • Field: Subject
   • Condition: contains
   • Value: <tag>

Of course you’ll replace <tag> with your own search phrase containing your special characters.

Note: If you need to repeat this search quite often, then you can create a Search Folder for this in the same way.