# Perform OR queries for categories on Microsoft Outlook for Mac

Bizarrely, one cannot make OR queries in Microsoft Outlook for Mac, at least not easily.
For example, I want a smart folder that contains all messages tagged with either the `FIS Broker` category or the `Dubletten` category.

The way to do it non-easily is to select `Raw Query` as the query rule type (in Search > Advanced), and then enter a Spotlight query string.
The attribute to query for categories is `com_microsoft_outlook_categories`.
That attribute takes a numeric id - but what the hell is the id for a category like `FIS Broker`?
Outlook doesn't tell me, so I have to go even deeper down the rabbit hole.
Here is how:

- Tag a message with a sufficiently unique message title with the categories you're interested in (e.g., `FIS Broker` and `Dubletten`).
- On the commandline, navigate to the folder that contains the raw MS Outlook messages:

```
$ cd ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data/Messages
```

- Grep for the title of the message to find the file that contains it:

```
$ grep -r -i "A sufficiently unique message title" ./*
Binary file ./11/0B2132B7-999F-4114-AC6C-E93DE72CEF9A.olk15Message matches
Binary file ./156/9C6C3E09-C2A3-42CE-A5EF-CEAB70865FC5.olk15Message matches
```

- Now run the `mdls` command on that file to find the attached Spotlight metadata:

```
$ mdls ./11/0B2132B7-999F-4114-AC6C-E93DE72CEF9A.olk15Message
```

- You'll get a long list of metadata. For our `com_microsoft_outlook_categories` attribute we get something like:

```
com_microsoft_outlook_categories               = (
    87,
    86
)
```

- So there we have our category ids!
- Finally, the raw Spotlight query to match all messages tagged with either one of these categories and put them in a smart folder is:

```
com_microsoft_outlook_categories == 86 || com_microsoft_outlook_categories == 87
```

---

Sources:

- http://xensoft.com/search-mac-outlook-2011-mail-with-raw-queries/
- https://superuser.com/questions/1388473/how-does-one-find-possible-values-for-com-microsoft-outlook-categories-in-outloo