How can I search for text phrases in the body of an email

Michael Herbst 20 Reputation points
2025-10-20T14:26:25.02+00:00

I am used to searching for specific text patterns in email occasionally to jump directly to the topic in a long chain. However, I cannot find the "search/replace" dialog in New Outlook. With Outlook (Classic), I just hit <ctrl><h> on my keyboard which opened the dialog (<ctrl><f> which is default for 'find' couldn't be used because in Outlook it's mapped to forward an email).

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For business

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Answer accepted by question author
Tamara-Hu 17,955 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2025-10-20T14:53:04.6133333+00:00

Hello @Michael Herbst,  

Good day! Thank you for posting your valuable question on Microsoft Q&A forum.   

Based on your description, it seems you want to search for text within an email body in New Outlook, similar to the Find/Replace (Ctrl+H) feature in Classic Outlook. Please let me know if I’ve misunderstood your request. 

By default, Ctrl + H in New Outlook is assigned to Forward an email. However, you can customize this setting: 

  • In New Outlook, go to File > Settings. 

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  • In the Settings window, navigate to General > Accessibility. 
  • Under Keyboard shortcuts, select Outlook for Web. 

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  • Save your changes, then close and reopen Outlook for the settings to take effect. 
  • After restarting, test the Ctrl + H shortcut again. 

Switching to Outlook for Web shortcuts works because New Outlook is built on a web-based framework. When you select this option, the app adopts the same shortcut mappings as Outlook on the Web, which includes Ctrl+H for Find/Replace, instead of the default Windows mapping where Ctrl+H is used for forwarding emails. 

If the issue still persists, please let me know and I'll help you with further troubleshooting steps. Thank you for your time and effort! 

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

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