Help Centre › Building Processes
This article describes the RPA Outlook functionality to find e-mails matching search criteria.
For a full list of available functions, please read OUTLOOK functions.
Description
The OUTLOOK Find an e-mail function allows you to search a mail folder for e-mails by subject, sender, recipients, body, date range, read status, importance and attachments. It returns a list of the matching e-mails.
Setting it up
To use the OUTLOOK Find an e-mail function, follow these instructions:
{{popups:rpas/add:action=outlook-find}}
Once on a process map:
- Navigate to the process where you would like to add the OUTLOOK Find an e-mail function
- Click on the green button's drop-down (right side of the green button labelled "Process")
- On the menu that appears, click on the "+ Activity" item
- From here you can select the OUTLOOK Find an e-mail option
- Click "Add" once you are done
Input parameters
| Parameter | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Folder | No | Text | Current folder, then Inbox | The mail folder to search, e.g. Inbox or Archive/2026 |
| Subject contains | No | Text | - | Only emails whose subject contains this text |
| From contains | No | Text | - | Only emails whose sender name or address contains this text |
| Received from | No | Text | - | Only emails received on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
| Received to | No | Text | - | Only emails received on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
| Max results | No | Number | 50 | The most emails to return |
| Variable | Yes | Text | - | The variable to store the matching emails in |
| Has attachments only | No | Switch | Off | Only emails that have attachments |
| Unread only | No | Switch | Off | Only emails that are still unread |
| To contains | No | Text | - | Only emails whose To addresses contain this text |
| Cc contains | No | Text | - | Only emails whose Cc addresses contain this text |
| Body contains | No | Text | - | Only emails whose message text contains this text |
| Importance | No | Select | - | Only emails with this importance: High, Normal or Low |
| Sort by | No | Select | Latest | Latest or oldest received first |
| Advanced filter (DASL) | No | Text | - | For power users: a raw Outlook filter, combined with the fields above |
| Mark as read | No | Switch | Off | Mark each email found as read |
Output variables
| Variable | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | List | The matching emails, newest first unless you sort otherwise. Each email has fields such as sender, subject and body – see Email fields. Read the first one's sender as {emails::0::sender} if the variable is emails. |
Errors
| Error | Description |
|---|---|
| Outlook not open | Outlook is not running |
| Folder not found | The specified folder does not exist |
Tips
- Combine multiple filters to narrow your search results
- Use Sort by to get the latest or oldest emails first
- Set Max results to avoid reading too many emails
- To check who sent an email, use the
senderfield (the address), notfrom