Can I get a list of common terms in my inbox subject lines

Question

I would like to create a list of common terms used in the subject lines of my inbox in outlook

Answer 1

To create a list of common terms used in the subject lines of your inbox in Outlook, you can utilize VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to analyze the subject lines of your emails. Here’s a general approach you can take:

1. Access the Inbox: Use the Outlook object model to access your inbox.
2. Iterate Through Emails: Loop through the items in your inbox and extract the subject lines.
3. Count Terms: Use a dictionary or similar structure to count occurrences of each term in the subject lines.
4. Display Results: After processing, display the most common terms.

Here’s a simplified example of how the VBA code might look:

Sub ListCommonTermsInSubjects()
    Dim inbox As Folder
    Dim item As Object
    Dim subject As String
    Dim terms As Object
    Set terms = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
    Set inbox = Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

    For Each item In inbox.Items
        If TypeOf item Is MailItem Then
            subject = item.Subject
            Dim words() As String
            words = Split(subject, " ") ' Split subject into words
            Dim word As Variant
            For Each word In words
                If Not terms.Exists(word) Then
                    terms.Add word, 1
                Else
                    terms(word) = terms(word) + 1
                End If
            Next word
        End If
    Next item

    ' Display the common terms
    Dim key As Variant
    For Each key In terms.Keys
        Debug.Print key & ": " & terms(key)
    Next key
End Sub

This code will print the terms and their counts in the Immediate Window of the VBA editor. You can modify it to sort and display the most common terms as needed.

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References:

• Search the Inbox for Items with Subject Containing "Office"
• Standard Fields Overview

Answer 2

Hi @Donna Seminara (Omnicom),

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

At this time, Outlook doesn’t include a built‑in feature that reports the most frequent words in your subject lines. However, there are two reliable approaches you can use depending on what you’re looking for: one that gives quick insights through Copilot (if your organization has enabled it), and another that provides precise, count‑based results using Power Automate and Excel.

Before we begin, just a quick note: If you’ve seen AI‑generated suggestions involving VBA scripts, please be aware that VBA is not supported in the New Outlook, so those methods won’t work there.

Option 1: Get quick insights using Copilot in Outlook

If your work account includes Copilot, you can simply open the new Outlook and use Summary by Copilot or Copilot chat to ask something like:

“Summarize the common themes in my inbox subject lines from the last 30 days.”

Copilot can identify recurring topics and patterns, which is often all you need for trend discovery. This feature is available in the New Outlook, Outlook on the web, and Outlook for Mac/mobile, depending on your organization’s Copilot configuration.

You can check this reference for details: Summarize an email thread with Copilot in Outlook.

Option 2: Get accurate word counts with Power Automate + Excel

If you prefer exact frequency counts, Power Automate paired with Excel can generate a reusable dataset. Here’s how it works:

1/ Create a logging sheet:

Make an Excel file stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Add a table named Subjects with columns:

• ReceivedTime
• From
• Subject

This will serve as the source for your word analysis.

2/ Build the cloud flow:

In Power Automate, create an Instant or Scheduled cloud flow.

• Add Office 365 Outlook: Get emails (V3) or When a new email arrives (V3) to gather subjects.
• Use the Search Query / advanced options to limit to a date range (e.g., last 30 days).
• Since the connector retrieves only up to 25 emails per call, you can use Send an HTTP request to call Microsoft Graph for larger sets:
  /me/messages?$top=999&$orderby=receivedDateTime desc
• Then, for each message, use Add a row into a table (Excel Online (Business)) to capture the key fields.
• Connector reference: Office 365 Outlook.
• Pagination example: How To Get Over 25 Emails In Power Automate.
  Note: Microsoft provides this information only as a convenience to users. These websites are not controlled by Microsoft, and Microsoft does not guarantee the quality, security, or suitability of any software or information on them. It is important to fully understand the risks involved before using any of the suggestions in the links above.

3/ Transform and count in Excel:

You can then process the raw subjects using either formulas or Power Query:

Formula approach (quick to set up):

Use TEXTSPLIT to break each subject into words, convert them to lowercase, and then build a PivotTable to count them:

=LOWER(TEXTSPLIT([@Subject],{" ",":",";","-",".","/","_"},,TRUE,1))

Reference: TEXTSPLIT function

Power Query approach (more scalable):

Load the Subjects table via Get Data, split the Subject column by delimiters into rows, normalize the words, and then Group By to get counts.

Reference: Split a column of text (Power Query)/ Split columns by delimiter.

4/ (Optional) Remove stop words or analyze phrases:

To refine results, you can remove common stop words (e.g., “the,” “and”) using Power Query patterns, or even generate phrase‑level counts by adding an index and combining consecutive words.

Reference: Remove stopwords from column / Text.Remove a specific word in Power Query

Furthermore, to ensure you receive the most accurate and expert guidance, if you have any questions about Power Automate process, I recommend posting your query on the Find Answers | Microsoft Power Platform Community

This forum is dedicated to Power Platform and is supported by a knowledgeable community, including Microsoft experts and partners. By posting there, you'll have access to more specialized resources and insights, which can help resolve your issue more effectively.

I suggest this route because our resources on Power Platform are limited, and we want to avoid providing incomplete or inaccurate information. The Power Platform Community is the best place to get targeted help and also allows others to learn from your experience.I hope this information is helpful.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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