How can I find text in the message of an email (Apple Mail or Outlook)?

January 10, 2018 1:15 AM

I would like to be able to look for a bit of text (e.g., "XXYY") in the subject OR the message of an incoming email, and flag it to myself somehow. I have found ways to apply rules in Apple Mail to the text of the incoming subject, but not the body of the email. I could also implement it in Outlook if it's a possibility there.
posted by stinker to Technology (4 answers total)

Apple Mail supports mail rules that can perform actions based on a number of criteria, including both the subject and the content. It sounds like you are already using Apple Mail's mail rule functionality. If you wanted to create a mail rule that acts on both the subject and content, try the following structure:

• if [any] of the following conditions are met:
• [Subject] [contains] XXYY
• [Message content] [contains] XXYY
• Perform the following actions:
• ....

If you haven't seen mail rules in Apple Mail before, you can find them in the Rules section of Preferences.
posted by RichardP at 1:29 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

If you use Outlook, you can do this with Tools > Instant Search > Advanced find.
posted by aqsakal at 2:28 AM on January 10, 2018

Outlook can also do with rules using subject and message body. Click file, then "manage alerts and rules" and then create a new one.
posted by chasles at 4:14 AM on January 10, 2018

I'd also suggest the smart mailboxes function of Apple Mail, wherein you can make an ongoing query show up with the appearance of a box. One choice is "Entire Message" and seems to work.
posted by zachxman at 6:07 PM on January 22, 2018