Outlook is the best email client for managing email accounts. Send, receive, store, print, store and search emails easily with Outlook application. You can use Outlook to set up Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Exchange, and other email services. Setting up any email service with Outlook creates a PST or OST file (depending on your settings). So how to search PST files without Outlook?
There are two best ways to search keywords in PST files, one is using Outlook interface and another is without using Outlook environment. Outlook provides a special quick search option to find any e-mail from the default data file (PST or OST). You can search emails by keyword, date, sender ID, subject, name and many other terms.
How to Search PST Email Files in Outlook?
In Outlook, you’ll find a quick or instant search box. This is the most common way to search any email by keyword, date, subject, sender id etc. Outlook provides several syntax and operators to find any email in a mailbox folder. Learn some syntax here:
- Body Grammar (Text: Search Term) finds any keyword in Outlook mailbox folders.
- The attachment syntax (attachment: search term) is used to retrieve the attachments associated with the email.
- Date syntax to search for emails with specific search criteria, e.g. received: Today, received: Friday, received: 08/21/2022, received: last week, or received: >=03/25/2022 AND received: < =08/25/2022.
- The sender syntax (From: Sender Name or From: Email ID) helps to search any email based on the sender information.
- The subjects syntax (subject:search term) is used to get all emails with a specific search term.
- The name (recipient name) syntax allows you to search for any email by recipient name.
This is the common syntax used by Outlook users to find any email. But the main challenge comes when we only have PST files and we don’t have Outlook installed and configured on our system. So how to find emails from a PST file without Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016 and 2013, let’s move to the solution in the next section.
Automatic Solution to Search PST Files Without Outlook 2021, 2019
FreeViewer provides a PST to PDF Converter Software to analyze, search and save PST emails in portable format. This app offers the best search algorithm to find emails, attachments and calendars in PST files. You can apply various operators (AND, OR, NONE) and search criteria (To, Cc, Bcc, etc.) to search emails by keyword, date, sender ID, subject, etc.
You can easily find all kinds of keywords in your Outlook PST file. In addition, this tool provides the ability to save search results in a portable document format. In addition, search results can be printed directly onto paper format (A3 and A4). Let’s take a look at the additional features of our recommended automation tool. With this utility, view, search, print and save data items in PST file to portable document format. Free software download for Windows OS 11, 10, 8, 7, etc.
- Search for emails in multiple PST files.
- Search a variety of messages from a specific sender or individual.
- Easily search for specific emails by subject syntax.
- Find messages with specific parameters like MD5.
- Search for any attachment in PST files
Step by Step Guide to Search PST Files Without Outlook
- First you need to Download the Software
- Next, click the “Add File” button highlighted on the screen to add the PST files you want to view and save.
- The next step is to select the PST file from your system for conversion. Here you will find two modes to select PST files.
- Choose your preferred mode of PST file selection and add the files to the application. There are 2 options for adding PST files.
- Select a Document
- Search Files
- The Advanced Search option of this software is capable to search for any particular email from single or multiple PST files
- For forensic users, they can take advantage of various search filters such as AND/OR/NOT associated with the utility.
- Users can easily add filters like To, Cc, Bcc, Subject, Body, Date Received, Sender Name, Date Sent, and more to make searches more specific.
- The application will also highlight the email after the completion of the search process
Highlights Features of this Application
- Users can easily add filters like To, Cc, Bcc, Subject, Body, Received Date, Sender Name, Sent Date and more to make searches more specific.
- The software will also highlight the emails after the search process is complete.
- After searching for a particular PST email, the user can easily export that email in PDF file format.
- It facilitates multiple email views for forensic analysis of damaged, password protected and healthy PST files.
- Dig deep into suspicious PST files and search for evidence using specific keywords and various search algorithms.
- Option to scan or open PST files through two modes: Quick Scan and Advanced Scan.
- Ability to export multiple Outlook PST files to PDF at once.
- Use Shift+arrow keys to select multiple data items.
- Supports scanning multiple PST files at the same time using Browse mode.
- Add scan files and delete saved scan files from the Upload Scan screen.
- Preview contacts, calendars, tasks and journals attached to PST files.
- Search any e-mail from single or multiple PST files with advanced search option.
- Supports searching emails, calendars and attachments by different criteria.
- Multiple Date Filter to Migrate Selected PST Folders to Adobe PDF Files.
- Allows you to filter duplicate items while exporting analytical data in the desired file format.
- The tool can create test lists with selected emails and attachments.
Also Read: How to Build Scalable and Secure Web Applications?
Conclusion
Most organizations, businesses and institutions use the Outlook application to send, receive and manage email, contacts, tasks and other items. However, finding one email out of many is difficult. For Outlook, a default instant search option is provided. The best option is to search emails by keyword, date, attachment, sender ID, etc.
However, if you do not have Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016 or earlier, the recommended automated tool can help to search PST files without Outlook. This software solution helps you find emails by multiple operators and criteria. Also, you can search emails, attachments and calendars in large PST files without using Outlook. So choose the recommended solution according to your own needs.