Using the Quick Search Box

Thunderbird makes it easy to search within messages. Just type a name or email address into the `Subject or Sender' search box near the top right corner of the main application window. It also works for finding messages with a specific subject.

To search for specific words in an email message, click the magnifying glass on the left side of the search box, select `Entire Message', and enter your desired text.

When you use the quick search box, Thunderbird shows the search results in the main window message list. To show all messages again, click on the Close button to the right of the quick search box.

Using Mail Views

Another quick search utilizes mail views. Select a view from the `View:' list, right above the message list, and all messages that fit the view's criterion will be shown, and all others hidden.

Here is a list of the default views in Thunderbird (you may create your own):

All: Selected by default. Shows all messages.
Unread: Shows unread messages only.
Label views: Shows messages with a particular label previously applied by you. The default labels are:

Important
Work
Personal
To Do
Later

People I Know: Shows messages from people in your address book.
Recent Mail: Shows messages less than a day old.
Last 5 Days
Not Junk: Messages which have not been marked as junk mail by Thunderbird or by you.
Has Attachments

Customizing Views

You can create your own views, change existing views, and delete views from the `Customize Message Views' dialog box. To bring up this dialog box, select `Customize...' from the `View:' list or from the View > Messages menu.

More Complex Searches: The `Search Messages' Window

Thunderbird lets you do more complicated searches in the `Search Messages' window. This window is accessible through the Edit > Find > Search Messages... menu item. (To quit the search window, click the window's close button, press Ctrl+W, or press Esc.)

Specifying Location

You can search for a message in any folder of any account, but only one account at a time.

In the `Search Messages' window, the first thing you specify is where to search. In the `Search for messages in:' list, select the account (and folder, if any) to search in. Say you have an account called `mail.isp.net' and you want to search the Inbox. You drop down the list, move the mouse over the account name, then click on `Inbox' when the folder list appears as a sublist of the account list. If you want to search the entire account, you click on `choose this folder' from the sublist.

Next you specify whether you want to search subfolders, with the `Search subfolder' checkbox. (In Thunderbird, mail folders can contain other mail folders; and mail folders themselves can be considered subfolders of account `folders'.) By default, the checkbox is checked because it usually makes sense to be as inclusive as possible when starting a search.

Specifying Criteria

Next you set up the criteria to match messages against. For example, the message has to be from so-and-so; or it has to be dated within the last week; or it has to be an unread message. Or you can specify that all of the criteria will have to be satisfied for a message to match.

The actual criteria are presented as a table of drop-down lists, with three columns. Each row represents a single criterion. You can add or remove criteria by clicking the `More' and `Fewer' buttons just below the criteria table.

The columns of the table are:

The subject of the criterion: That is, what you want to check. This can be the subject of the message, the sender, the age in days, priority, attachment status, recipients, and so on.
The comparison: That is, whether the subject is the same as, different from, more or less or equal, and so on. For different types of values, the comparisons are different. The four different types of values you can check are text, numbers, dates, and truth values (booleans) -- whether something is true or not.
The value that you specify: For example, if you want to specify that a message must be 6 days old, you would type `6' here.

Here is an example of a criterion:

You want to match all messages which are 6 days old. You select `Age In Days' in the first drop-down list, `is' in the second, and type `6' in the third column box.

Multiple Criteria

When you set up more than one criterion, you have the choice of matching all the criteria, or any of them. For example, if you specify the criteria `must be 6 days old' and `sender must contain the name "dave" ' then you can make it so that the search is for messages which are 6 days old and from `dave', or you can have it so that messages which are 6 days old or from `dave' will show up.

Results

Once you've specified the criteria, you click the `Search' button on the top-right corner of the window, and the search results appear as a list of messages in the lower half of the window. (There is a divider between the criteria and the results that you can drag to change the space taken up by the two parts.)

The results list is just a message list like in the main Thunderbird window, except there is no right-click shortcut menu for the messages.

Below the results list is a row of buttons to manipulate the search results. The buttons are:

Open: Opens a message; same as double-clicking it.
File: A drop-down menu which lets you move messages to another folder.
Delete: Deletes a message; same as pressing the Delete key.
Open Message Folder: Opens a new Thunderbird main window, goes to the message's folder, and selects the message.
Save as Search Folder: Saves the search as a virtual folder where all matching messages appear. The practical effect of this is that these messages show up both in their original folder and in the search folder, and that each time a new message arrives that fits the search criteria, it automatically shows up in the search folder.

The `Clear' button right below the `Search' button wipes out all the criteria and gives you a brand new search.

Thunderbird:Help Documentation:Finding Information in Messages

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