Saved Search is a feature introduced back in version 0.9 of Thunderbird and offers further customisation and can increase productivity. Much the same as Smart Folders in Outlook, Saved Search allows you to really customise your Thunderbird experience by saving searches that you regularly do. Drilling down to the finest details and save these for future use, the real advantage of this system is they work in the same way as individual folders that you set up, yet keep the mail in the Inbox or original folder.
One use may be having the ‘European Sales Invoices’ for last 30 days as one saved search. At any one time they are instantly available yet keeping the mail in the same place. Further examples of saved searches could be introducing a ‘flagged’, ‘important’ or, the one I find most valuable, ‘unread’ mail folder into Thunderbird. The micro management of these saved searches is down to you, though the customization is limitless. Fortunately creating saved searches is straightforward and can be completed in a number of ways:
First up, when you perform a search from the quick search box in Thunderbird, click on the down arrow to show the drop down list and select ‘Save Search as Folder’ (1).
When you perform a detailed search with more conditions select ‘Edit’ -> ‘Find’ -> ‘Search Messages…’. Customise the search and click ‘Save as Search Folder’ (2). Alternatively, a quicker variation the above is to select ‘File’ -> ‘New’ -> ‘Saved Search….’
Lastly from the view menu above the message contents, select ‘Save View as Folder’.
