So, if you want to find every email that has either UCLA or Bruins in it, search for “UCLA OR Bruins.” (This is called “Boolean searching.” Mail’s default behavior is to assume there’s an “AND” between the words you type in the Search box.) Specify where to search You can make Mail work the way you think it should– that is, you can make it search for either UCLA or Bruins– if you put the word “OR” in between. Moral of the story: if you don’t find as many messages as you think you should, don’t add more search criteria. So, if you search for “UCLA Bruins,” Mail only shows you messages that have both “UCLA” and “Bruins” in them. That’s because Mail only finds messages that match every condition you search for.
What do you do next? A lot of people think that they should type more, but that’s wrong, because the more you type, the less you find.įor example, if you search for “UCLA” and find 20 messages, but the message you want isn’t in there, adding “Bruins” to the search won’t help. You type something into the Search field (did you know you can move the search field? Hold the Command key down and drag it to place), but you don’t find what you’re looking for. To search the entire Mail database, use ⌥-⌘-F.