Any way to use boolean operators and control words in ThunderBird Ctrl+F and Ctrl+K search?
Tonny Iversen
ThunderBird Ctrl+F or Ctrl+K search?
Like if I want to do a search like this (just unrealistic madeup
examples to show what kind of search possibility I'm wondering about
whether it's possible):
FROM:Tonny TO:ibm.com price "x3650 server"
and
FROM:polarpartner.no NOT:FROM:in...@polarpartner.no "x3650 server"
and
FROM:polarpartner.no (TO:ibm.com OR TO:microsoft.com) "ibm x2"
I cannot find out neither a way to use the syntax FROM:xxx or similar,
and neither to use the boolean operators NOT and OR. Maybe there is
another syntax to do this? Or maybe it can't be done today?
If not, it would be nice to have someone put this on the official
feature request list/wishlist, as I don't know who to contact about that.
(Using Edit, Find, Search Messages / Ctrl+Shift+F doesn't help as that
does not seem to use the index so that search takes extremely long if
having a lot of e-mail)
Tonny
Andreas Borutta
> Is there any way to use boolean operators and control words in
> ThunderBird Ctrl+F or Ctrl+K search?
>
> Like if I want to do a search like this (just unrealistic madeup
> examples to show what kind of search possibility I'm wondering about
> whether it's possible):
>
> FROM:Tonny TO:ibm.com price "x3650 server"
You want the extension "Expression Search".
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/59457/
Andreas
Für die deutschsprachigen Leser:
Ich habe die Syntax in einer kleinen Tabelle zusammengefasst.
http://borumat.de/thunderbird-email-tipps#bessere-schnellfilterleiste
Because the project has no homepage, I paste a copy of the help file:
***
Expression Search is an extension to Thunderbird (versions 3.0+) which
add powerful message searching features. It's a lite version of
GMailUI, written by Ken Mixter.
Type "from:fred to:tom attachment:yes" to see all messages from Fred
to Tom in the current view that have an attachment. Press Ctrl+Enter
to have this search apply to all folders.
Expression Search's features are described below.
Search expressions and quick search key
This extension adds a new search text box to the end of your quick
search bar. Whatever phrase you enter is searched for in your
currently selected folder's to/from/cc/subject fields. Notice that by
default the body is not searched for your search phrase. If that
results in too many matches,you can focus the seach using "operators".
Operators are just short words followed by a colon, such as
"from:amazon.com".
Here are some examples:
weekend plans
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for 'weekend plans' in the from, to, cc, or subject fields.
from:mike or f:mike
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for 'mike' in the from field.
to:bill or t:bill
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for 'bill' in the to or cc fields of the message.
subject:electric bill or s:electric bill
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for 'electric bill' in the subject fields of the message.
attachment:yes or a:yes
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for an attachment, Notice that it does not search for attachments
named "yes". You can also use "y" or "1" for "yes". You can use "no",
"n", or "0" to search for messages without attachments.
body:electric bill
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for 'electric bill' in the body of the message. On large or remote
folders it may take some time. Also, if you combine this with other
search operators like "from:", "subject:" or "to:" this will speed
things up considerably.
all: weekend plans
This expression searches all messages in the current folder or view
for 'weekend plans' anywhere in the message, including the from, to,
cc, or subject fields, and the body.
g: weather
This will call gloda (faceted) search if gloda enabled. This mode
can't be used toghter will other specifications like 'f:' or 't:'.
By default, Press Ctrl+K, your cursor will appear in the quick search
bar, and you will be able to type.
Once you are typing in your search query, and you hit enter or
otherwise let it begin searching, your cursor will remain inside of
the query box to allow you to modify the query. However, if you'd
rather go back to browsing your messages, instead of clicking on the
message headers in your search results, you can just press 'ESC' to
refocus back to the message results, and press 'ESC' again to clear
the search criteria.
Quick Search Virtual Folder
If you haven't before used 'virtual folders' in Thunderbird, let me
introduce them. This standard feature of Thunderbird lets you create a
search, name it, and then have that name appear in your folders list.
You can select that folder from the list and see the current result of
the saved search. Note two useful things: 1) the 'contents' of the
virtual folder can actually be in any of your real folders, and so a
virtual folder actually can 'contain' messages that span many folders,
and 2) the virtual folder's contents are recomputed each time you view
it, so if you saved a virtual folder with 'sender' field containing
'Donald', then if you receive a new message from someone named Donald,
it will be placed in your INBOX, but you'll immediately be able to
switch to your Donald virtual folder, and find it there.
So that's what regular virtual search folders do in Thunderbird. But
this extension makes it extremely easy to create them. Now, when you
normally hit 'enter' in the Expression search quick search bar, you
can instead hit 'ctrl-enter' and a virtual folder called
'ExressionSearch' will be created (or modified if it already existed)
to search for that search across ALL of your folders in the current
account.
The resulting virtual folder 'ExpressionSearch' can then be modified
by editing properties, or can be renamed to make it a permanent
virtual search folder. If you do not rename the folder, the next time
you use ctrl-enter the ExpressionSearch virtual folder is reused to
show your new quick search result.
More complex searching
The quick search bar allows you use the simple expressions from above,
but it also allows you to compose more complex searches. For instance,
if you want to search for a message from Bob Barker to Dave Letterman
about monologues, you can use:
f:Bob Barker t:Dave Letterman s:monologues
If you are tired of getting results that have jokes about "Monica",
you can instead use:
f:Bob Barker t:Dave Letterman s:monologues -Monica
If you are interested in messages from either of these celebrities:
f:Bob Barker or f:Dave Letterman
Technical note: For the average user, the above information is usually
adequate. If you are curious, this feature still relies upon an
underlying Thunderbird message searching mechanism. That mechanism
cannot always perform searches correctly that have a combination of
boolean operators. So, if you try to perform a search that mixes
"ands" and "ors" you may get back too many results. As an example, if
you were to search for "t:dan and f:(bob or dave)" you will be mixing
boolean operators and the results may be over inclusive or may work.
As an extra technical note, if you did "t:dan and -f:(bob or dave)",
DeMorgan's theorem takes place and you are actually composing a search
of "t:dan and f:-bob and f:-dave".
However, due to restrictions in Thunderbird's virtual search folder,
the complex searching results maybe correct in your current search
results, but maybe NOT in you search folder. as the search folder can
only handle 'Match all' and 'Match any' types.