Gmail is most popular free webmail service provided by Google. Gmail is famous due to free POP3 and IMAP services which some free webmail provider like yahoo enables in paid version. Gmail has a search-oriented interface and a “conversation view” similar to an Internet forum.
There are around 170 million people using Gmail on 9 February 2010 according to BBC and found new accounts everyday. I am a big fan of Gmail because of fast mail delivery. As I am using Gmail for so many years, all my important emails and documents are stored in my account. Sometimes you need to look up old mails and attachments for some important work. And thanks to Gmail team, it has a smart feature that helps us to search through hundreds of email and attachments.
Gmail also offers a bunch of advanced search operators, which provide a powerful way to find that one message you have in mind. Advanced search operators are query words or symbols that perform special actions in Gmail search. These operators allow you to find what you’re looking for quickly and accurately.
| Operator | Definition | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|
| from: | Used to specify the sender | Example: from:amy Meaning: Messages from Amy |
| to: | Used to specify a recipient | Example: to:david Meaning: All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else) |
| subject: | Search for words in the subject line | Example: subject:dinner Meaning: Messages that have |
| OR | Search for messages matching term A or term B* *OR must be in all | Example: from:amy OR from:david Meaning: Messages from Amy or from David |
| – (hyphen) | Used to exclude messages from your search | Example: dinner -movie Meaning: Messages that contain the word “dinner” but do not contain |
| label: | Search for messages by label* *There isn’t a search operator for unlabeled messages | Example: from:amy label:friends Meaning: Messages from Amy that Example: from:david label:my-family Meaning: Messages from David that |
| has:attachment | Search for messages with an attachment | Example: from:david has:attachment Meaning: Messages from David that have |
| list: | Search for messages on mailing lists | Example: list:info@example.com Meaning: Messages with the words info@example.com in the headers, sent to or from this list |
| filename: | Search for an attachment by name or type | Example: filename:physicshomework.txt Meaning: Messages with an Example: Meaning: Messages labeled |
| ” ” (quotes) | Used to search for an exact phrase* *Capitalization isn’t taken into consideration | Example: “i’m feeling lucky” Meaning: Messages containing Example: Meaning: Messages containing |
| ( ) | Used to group words Used to specify terms that shouldn’t be excluded | Example: from:amy (dinner OR movie) Meaning: Messages from Amy Example: Meaning: Messages in which |
| in:anywhere | Search for messages anywhere in Gmail* *Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches | Example: in:anywhere movie Meaning: Messages in All Mail, |
| in:inbox in:trash in:spam | Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam | Example: in:trash from:amy Meaning: Messages from Amy that |
| is:important label:important | Search within messages that Priority Inbox considers important. | Example: is:important from:janet Meaning: Messages from Janet that |
| is:starred is:unread is:read | Search for messages that are starred, unread or read | Example: is:read is:starred from:David Meaning: Messages from David that |
| cc: bcc: | Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields* *Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied | Example: cc:david Meaning: Messages that were cc-ed to David |
| after: before: | Search for messages sent during a certain period of time* *Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format. | Example: after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 Meaning: Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.* |
| is:chat | Search for chat messages | Example: is:chat monkey Meaning: Any chat message including the word “monkey”. |
| deliveredto: | Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header | Example: deliveredto:username@gmail.com Meaning: Any message with username@gmail.com in the Delivered-To: field of the message header (which can help you find messages forwarded from another account or ones sent to an alias). |
How To Search Attachments In Gmail Inbox with Simple Commands
Searching attachments is simple but if you know a few tricks, it becomes even more fun and accurate. Let’s look at some real-world examples:
#1. Find Mails with attachments.
has:attachment
#2. Find all the emails having doc files attached.
has:attachment doc
#3. Find all the emails having pdf files attached.
has:attachment pdf
#4. Find all the emails having doc files attached to it and has “google” in the beginning of these doc file name.
filename:google*.doc
#5. Find all the emails having doc files attached to it and has “google” in anywhere in the file name.
filename:*google*.doc
#6. Find all the emails having doc or .html files or both attached to it.
filename:.doc OR filename:.html
#7. Find only those emails having both .doc and .html files attached to it.
filename:.doc AND filename:.html
Do let us know if you have any queries or if you have any more suggestions or points which I might have missed, do let us know via comment.
I use Gmail – on my android hone aps – thankx Google great products here – Gmail rocks the house in email ….