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?
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.
- Open Advanced Find (shortcut key: CTRL+SHIFT+F)
- Select the Advanced tab
- 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.