Lesson 11. Searching in Gmail

In this lesson, you learn the various ways to search for messages in your Gmail inbox.

The search box at the top of every Gmail page is used not for searching the Web, but rather for searching Gmail. When you enter a query, Gmail searches your messages and contacts for matches. That means you can search for a person by name or email address, or for a message that contains a specific word or phrase.

For most users, Gmail’s basic search feature will quickly and easily find the messages you’re looking for. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Enter your search query, in the form of one or more keywords, into the search box at the top of any Gmail page.

2. As you type, Gmail displays labels, messages, and contacts that match what you’ve typed so far, as shown in Figure 11.1. If one of these items is what you’re searching for, click it.

FIGURE 11.1 Viewing Gmail’s search suggestions.

3. Otherwise, continue entering your query and then press Enter or click the Search (magnifying glass) button.

4. Gmail now returns a list of messages that contain the keywords you entered anywhere within the email—in the subject line, in the message text, or in the sender or recipient lists. Click a message to read it.

1. From any Gmail page, click the Show Search Options down arrow at the far right of the search box. This expands the top of the page to display the Search Options pane, shown in Figure 11.2. You can use any or all of the options presented here for your search.

FIGURE 11.2 Entering advanced search parameters.

2. By default, Gmail searches all your email. To restrict the search to certain types of messages (such as Starred, Drafts, or Read Mail) or messages assigned a specific label, click the Search list arrow and make a selection.

3. To search only for messages from a selected person, enter that person’s name (or part of his or her name) into the From field.

4. To search only for messages to a selected person or email address, enter that person’s name or address into the To field.

5. To search only within the message subjects, enter one or more keywords into the Subject field.

6. To search for messages that include specific keywords, enter those keywords into the Has the Words field.

7. To exclude messages that contain one or more specific words, enter those words into the Doesn’t Have field.

8. To search only for messages with files attached, check the Has Attachment box.

9. To exclude any message conversations that include chats, check the Don’t Include Chats box.

10. To search for messages by size (good for finding messages with large file attachments or embedded photos), click the Size list arrow and select either Greater Than or Less Than. Enter the desired size into the Size box, and then click the next list arrow to specify MB, KB, or Bytes.

11. To search for messages by date, click the Date Within list arrow and select a timeframe (1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, 1 year). Enter the desired date into the Date box.

12. When you’re ready to begin the search, click the Search Mail button.

Table 11.1 details the available Gmail search operators.

TABLE 11.1 Gmail Advanced Search Operators

You can combine any or all of these operators in a single query. For example, to search within a certain date range, combine the after: and before: operators, like this: after:2014/06/15 before:2014/09/01. As a further example, to search for unread messages from a certain person (Gary), enter this query: from:gary is:unread.