Most mail clients can search through your messages for you, but Ximian Evolution does it faster. You can search through just the message subjects, just the message body, or both body and subject.
To start searching, enter a word or phrase in the text area right below the toolbar, and choose a search type:
This will search message subjects and the messages themselves for the word or phrase you've entered in the search field.
This will search only in message text, not the subject lines.
This will show you messages where the search text is in the subject line. It will not search in the message body.
This finds every email message that does not have the search text in the message body. It will still show messages that have the search text in the subject line, if it is not also in the body.
This finds every mail whose subject does not contain the search text.
If you think you'll want to return to a search again, you can save it as a virtual folder by selecting Store Search as vFolder.
When you're done with the search, go back to seeing all your messages by choosing Show All from the Search drop-down box. If you're sneaky, just enter a blank search: since every message has at least one space in it, you'll see every message in the folder.
If you'd like to perform a more complex search, open the advanced search dialog by selecting Advanced... from the Search drop-down menu. Then, create your search criteria (each with the same options you saw in the regular search bar), and decide whether you want to find messages that match all of them, or messages that match even one. Then, click Search to go and find those messages.
You'll see a similar approach to sorting messages when you create filters and vFolders in the next few sections.