Can I change how Quick Filter searches on email address rather than the name I see?
I display people's names from my contact list in messages, but it seems quick filter only searches for the email address. This gets confusing because I rarely see people's email addresses. For example, Jim Smith is a support person and his email is support@abc.com. I see "Jim Smith" in my list of messages. But if I search for "Jim", nothing shows; I need to search for "support". Is there a way to change or get around this?
Thank you.
All Replies (3)
Thunderbird has different search methods which can be used to produce various results depending upon what you require.
The 'Quick Filter Bar' will not provide what you are looking for if the sender only sends the email address in a FROM field. Some people send a display name as well as email address, in which case the 'Quick Filter Bar' will locate it.
Perhaps 'Jim Smith' signed his name at the bottom of the email even if not in the email address itself. In which case you need to ensure the 'Quick Filter Bar' is searching on 'Body' and not just 'Sender'.
But, if Jim Smith does not mention anything in the email regarding his name, then TB cannot locate something that does not exist in the email.
However, type Jim or Smith into the 'Global Search' bar and you may find a better result as it does pick up the 'display names' which you have showing due to your Address Book settings for that contact. It will also offer you the email address to select when entering the name 'Jim Smith' in the Global Search.
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Searching the body will work, but not well as it will turn up a ton more instances and make finding what i am looking for tough.
There is no way the search can look at both display and actual email?
When it comes to Quick Filter Bar - it is searching on actual email content, so it cannot locate 'Display Names' which are not included by the sender. In your case: You see a chosen 'display name' because in your address book, you have assigned a 'Display name' based on the email address. But 'Jim Smith' does not include a display name when he sends an email. He may only include a signature in the Body. Hence searching for 'Jim Smith' in Body is the course of action when using the 'Quick Filter Bar'.
The Global Search will search keyword on all accounts, so yes you may get more results. But then you use the additional filters to reduce the returned search. You can even select which month etc. Good info here:
OR: Menu icon > Find > Search Messages You can search by a selection of parameters/conditions and dates etc If required, you can also save the search as a folder (a sort of virtual folder) and it will keep updated, so you do not have to perform search again. You can also modify it to include other mail accounts, folders etc,.