Can Outlook Search use Regular Expressions (or wild cards)?

Solution 1:

Bill, I've been using Outlook for over 10 years, through at least 3 versions. I've been a routine user of regular expressions in other software for nearly that long. Although I'm not using Outlook 2010, I'm fairly confident that the feature is not present.

Partly, I base my answer on MS Word (2007) functionality which does use wildcards. However, MS Word is not even close to being a regular expression, though you can see that it takes some influence from regular expressions.

Solution 2:

I know this isn't exactly the answer you are looking for but it might help. Outlook's 2013 Advanced Search ribbon emulates regular expressions. For example, to search for an exact phrase use the "is (exactly)" condition:

1. Click Search Tools, Advanced Find
2. Go to the "Advanced" tab
3. Use the "Field" dropdown to select the field you wish to search in
4. Select the desired condition (for exact searches "is (exactly)")
5. Enter your desired search term in the Value field, then click "Add to List"
6. Click "Find Now" to run the search

Note this allows you to search for strings like "FIS" without getting hits for "fish".