Sometimes you’ll find that your search results are clogged by other similar-sounding emails from a certain source (like newsletters) or name. In these cases, you can add a minus sign (also known as a hyphen) to the front of a word you would like to exclude from your search results. (Note: ‘football’ without a space is similar to ‘football’ but ‘foot -ball’ with a space in the middle equals ‘foot NOT ball’. And guess what, this trick also works in Google!)

Outlook users can tailor their searches even more by using the search ribbon that only appears in search mode. For example, you can click the attachment button to eliminate all emails that do not have an attachment – which is very handy if you are searching for a file rather than an email!