Any Microsoft Outlook item can be assigned to one or more categories. Consistent use of categories makes it easier to locate specific items. This page sums up a few things I’ve learned about Outlook categories.
Outlook 2007 and 2010 do not use the registry for a master category list; they are stored in the default message store (mailbox or pst). If you are setting up a new system and using your old pst the color categories will be available on the new system. You may need to right click on the root folder (Outlook Today), choose Properties and click the button to Upgrade to color categories. This will assign random colors to the categories.
You can use Group policy to push Categories out to users, merging new categories with their existing categories. In the Group Policy Editor (with the Outlook 2007 or 2010 ADM files installed), look under Miscellaneous.
How to Upgrade to Color Categories in Outlook 2007/2010 (video tutorial)
Unlike with older versions, you cannot paste a comma separated list of categories into the master category dialog and add them all to the Outlook 2007/2010 master list. With the exception of the All Fields page of an Outlook contact, the only way to add categories to items is using the Category picker menu or dialog. You can use the All fields page to bulk add categories to Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010.
Category Manager
Outlook 2330, 2007, 2010 | Managing Categories | FAQ: Color Categories
Master Category List | Keeping Categories Consistent | How To | Category-based Mail Merge
More Fun with Categories | Things You Can’t Do with Categories
Tools | More Information
Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010
Assigning Categories to Sent Email | Categories in Shared Folders
Bulk Add Categories in Outlook 2007/2010
Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 disable the ability to assign a category to mail before sending it. This change was made to prevent user data from “leaking”. For example, if you use a category named “PITA Customer” you would not want it included on email sent to customers. (Yes, this type of scenario really happened, more than once.)
Assigning Categories to Sent Email
Color categories are removed from Outlook 2003/2007/2010 items sent by email. If you need to include the category on a one time basis, drag the item to the hard drive, zip it and email the zip file. The recipient will drag the item to a folder in their Outlook and if using Outlook 2007, can add the categories to their master list by using the Upgrade to color categories option in the root folder properties.
If you need to include the categories all the time, use the SendPersonalCategories registry entry.
This key works with Outlook 2003 and 2007 as well as 2010, you’ll need to use the correct path in the registry for your version. This can also be set using Group Policy – look for it in the Office adm files, under Outlook > Miscellaneous.
Create the key or path if it does not exist.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Preferences DWORD: SendPersonalCategories Value Data: 1 to keep categories on sent mail, 0 to not include categories
If you don’t want to edit the registry yourself, download and run the registry file for your version of Outlook:
Outlook 2003 reg Outlook 2007 reg Outlook 2010 reg
Note that the categories will be included on the sent message and the recipient will be able to see the category (unless the recipient uses a rule to remove categories from messages they receive).
Categories in Shared Folders
Only categories are visible on items when you share folders on Exchange server – colors are per user. Other users will see your categories in a white color (unless its already in their color category list).
To add a category that is not in your master list, to your master list, 
select it (so its highlighted) and click the New button. Outlook will assign the next unused color – change the color and set a shortcut key, if desired, then click Save.
Managing Categories
To add, remove, rename, or assign shortcuts to categories, expand the category selector and choose All Categories from the end of the menu to open the Color Category dialog, shown below.
Select the category on the left then the appropriate button in the dialog to add, edit, delete categories, or assign colors or shortcuts to categories.
You cannot add categories in bulk using this dialog.
Bulk Add Categories in Outlook 2007/2010
While you can bulk add categories to any item in older versions of Outlook by typing in the category field, in Outlook 2007/2010, you need to use the category menu or dialog to select categories.
Also possible in older versions, you could type (or paste) a comma-delimited list in the master category dialog then add the list to your master list. While this is not possible to do from the master category list in Outlook 2007/2010, it is possible to type a list of categories and add them to the master list.
- Open a contact form and switch to the All Fields page.
- Select Frequently used fields from the Select from menu, then type (or paste) a comma-separated list of categories into the Category field.
- Next, right click on the top level of your data file (where Outlook Today is) and choose Properties
- Click Upgrade to Color Categories button
FAQ: Color Categories
Q: How do I reset the categories?
A: In Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010, you can remove the categories you added and restore the defaults using the cleancategories switch. Close Outlook and type or paste the following command in the Start Search field (Windows 7) or in the Run command (WinXP):
outlook.exe /cleancategories
This will remove all categories from the master category list and restore the default category placeholder names (Red Category, Blue Category etc). This will not remove the categories from individual items. To remove categories from Outlook items, create a search folder to find the items that have categories assigned then remove the categories using Select All, then right click and choose Clear All Categories.
If you decide you want to restore the categories to the master list (and haven’t deleted them from the items yet), use Upgrade to color categories.
In Outlook 2003, go to Edit menu, Categories, Master Category List. Click Reset and close the dialog.
Q: How is the Category list organized?
A: When you expand the Categories button, the flyout is ordered by the most recently used categories. If you click All Categories to open the Color Categories dialog, the list should be alphabetical.
Master Category List
The master category list is not a separate file, but instead is part of the Windows Registry. Each user has a different category list. Outlook 2007 does not store color categories in the registry.
To back up the Master Category List in Outlook 97/98:
- Run Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook and select the Categories key.
- Choose Registry | Export Registry File to make a copy of the Categories branch of the registry.
To back up the Master Category List in Outlook 2000:
- Run Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook and select the Categories key.
- Choose Registry | Export Registry File to make a copy of the Categories branch of the registry.
To back up the Master Category List in Outlook 2002:
- Run Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook and select the Categories key.
- Choose Registry | Export Registry File to make a copy of the Categories branch of the registry. Note that this list is in Unicode encoding and is not compatible with earlier versions of Outlook.
To back up the Master Category List in Outlook 2003:
- Run Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook and select the Categories key.
- Choose Registry | Export Registry File to make a copy of the Categories branch of the registry. Note that this list is in Unicode encoding and is not compatible with versions other than Outlook 2002.
To use any of these methods to move categories to another computer using a compatible version of Outlook, you’ll need to change the version number in the key before importing.
You can use this exported branch to distribute a category list to other Outlook users. See the MSKB article How to Migrate Custom Categories to Other Users. CAUTION: Using a .reg file to propagate a category list does not update a user’s own list; instead it completely replaces it. I personally do not recommend this method, because it eliminates much the utility of the Category feature for users. See the next section for what I think is a better method.
If you remove a category from the master list, any items marked with that category are not affected. In the Categories dialog box, that category is listed as “(not in master list).”
Also see:
Keeping Categories Consistent
I’m convinced that many people worry too much about keeping the Master Category List consistent from user to user, when what they really want is to keep the categorization of the items themselves consistent. It is critical to remember that the category set on an individual item is totally independent of the user’s Master Category List.
For example, you can set a category of Blue on an item, then delete Blue from your personal Master Category List. The item is still categorized as Blue. In the Categories dialog, you should now see its category as “Blue (not on master list).” Anyone who has never had Blue on the master list will see the same thing.
Yes, it would be nice if Microsoft had made this easier, but the real issue usually is making category assignment consistent. In a public folder, consider handling that with a custom form that forces users to pick from an “official” list of categories. I’ve put together a sample form at Required Categories Contact Form.
Another approach would be to use code behind the form to make category assignment automatic based on the value of other fields in the form.
One situation where the Master Categories list makes a difference is when you are working with a large folder and dragging a large number of items between categories. When a category is not in the Master List, you risk losing the original categories from items added to new categories. You can avoid problems by dragging fewer items at a time or select the items, right click and choose Categories.
How To …
To filter a folder on multiple categories …
On the More Choices tab in the Filter dialog, type the names of the categories separated by “AND” Do not use the Categories button.
For example, to display contacts who are in both the Personal category and the Business category, type in “Personal AND Business.”
In Outlook 2007, use the Advanced tab to create the filter. Use Categories for the Field, select contains as the Condition and enter the category names, separated by AND in the Value field.
The QueryBuilder can be used to create the AND filter if you use Outlook 2002, 2003 or 2007. See Using QueryBuilder for more information.
Remove Categories From Messages
To remove categories from incoming messages, create a rule and choose the condition to “clear messages’s categories”.
If you use an older versions of Outlook, Rules Wizard doesn’t have an option to remove categories from messages you send or receive, it can only add more categories. You’ll need to use VBA to remove categories.
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Item.Categories = ""
End SubVisit OutlookCode for assistance with Outlook programming.
Category-based Mail Merge
Note that this section does not apply to Outlook 2003/2007/2010. In any of these newer versions you can filter or group by category, select the contacts in the category and start the mail merge using Tools, Mail merge.
You can’t use categories directly as selection criteria for a Word mail merge in Outlook 97 and Outlook 98. (It is added in Outlook 2000 — but works only if each item has only one category assigned to it.) That does not mean that it can’t be done, though. It just takes a bit of extra effort. Here are several methods:
Method #1:
Select Contacts by category using a filter, copy all matching items to a new Contacts folder, add that folder to the Outlook Address Book, and use it as the mail merge source. See the MSKB article Q160521: Categories Unavailable to Mail Merge in Word. Also see Helen Feddema’s Code Sample 48 for a VBScript routine to do the copying to another folder for you.
Method #2:
You can use Excel to drive a bulk mailing based on a category. See the Microsoft article Using Microsoft Excel To Do a Bulk Mailing in Microsoft Outlook.
Some of the third-party mail merge tools also support merging by category.
More Fun with Categories
See Microsoft Exchange and Outlook Distribution Lists for details on how to use categories to create instant Personal Distribution Lists.
You can use categories in Rules Wizard rules, both as part of conditions and as actions, assigning one or more categories to an item. For example, I used to use an autoresponder to handle subscription requests for my Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter and marked the incoming requests with a category of “Response sent.”
If you create a new Outlook item from another item, the categories carry over. Back to the autoresponder example: I manage the mailing list in a Contacts folder that uses a custom form. New items are created by dragging the incoming message to the folder. When the new recipient is created, it has the category of “Response sent.” This also works with replies and forwards; as long as you send in RTF format, the recipient will see any category you apply. However, if you send a message with a category via the Microsoft Network service, it may remain in the Outbox unsent. See the MSKB article Q163176: MSN Mail Not Sent with Category or Contact Attachment.
Helen Feddema’s Code Sample 55 demonstrates how to use an Outlook form to display all contacts by category. It’s up to you to take the next step of writing code to do something with all those contacts.
Also see:
Things You Can’t Do with Categories
You can’t create a view that shows both categories and subcategories. In other words, the Categories field can be used for grouping just once. What you might try is a set of categories that themselves include a subcategory: Friends – Good, Friends – Very Close, etc.
You can’t search and replace a category directly without writing code. However, you can select a bunch of categories, then right-click, choose Categories from the pop-up menu and work with the Categories for the entire group of items.
Problems and Issues
We have a report that GoContactSync (an Outlook/Gmail sync utility) resets the master category list. Categories are not removed from the Outlook items, but the categories are shown as “not in master Category”.
Tools in the Spotlight
The updated version of ReliefJet Essentials for Outlook adds many new features including support for Quick Text with hotkeys and expandable macros. New utilities added like Add BCC to Messages and Redirect Messages. All utilities can be integrated with Outlook Rules. A command line tool for Outlook professionals and administrators is also provided. More than 70 tools and utilities are now included. |
Tools
Select an Outlook item and instantly see the categories assigned. To make changes just use the checkboxes next to the category. Sort your categories into meaningful Groups. Restrict which folders a category is displayed in. Want to filter the current view by category, easy, select the category (or categories) and click the Filter button...Done. Share your categories across your organization. works with Outlook 2010 (32-bit), Outlook 2007/2003/2002/2000. | |
Categories Administrator was specifically designed for users to easily administer Master and Individual Contact Categories in Outlook/Exchange/BCM. Add, rename, merge, remove, delete, import, and create categories in Outlook/Exchange/BCM. Create a query and then map it to the selected contacts. | |
Categorize Plus enables users to categorize and search Outlook items using a selectable menu hierarchy. Categorize Plus also allows user to automatically process emails by creating Category Actions. In addition, Categorize Plus will automatically assign categories to items as they arrive in your Inbox or any other folder that you choose. Categorize Plus also includes a dock-able Category Editor that is used to quickly edit item categories and commands to copy/paste categories and to undo/redo categorizations. Available in both Free and Paid versions and works with Outlook 2003/2007/2010. | |
Category Importer for Outlook, exports your Master Category List (MCL) to a text file that you can easily import on another PC. Free | |
Category Manager allows sharing of color categories; it adds a sidebar to the folder view as well as opened items, in which you can group your categories and assign them lightning fast; and it adds a reminder, which optionally prompts you if you forget to assign a category. Version 3.0.4 | |
Category Organizer adds a sidebar to Outlook allowing instant access to your categories. Select a contact and instantly see the categories assigned, need to make changes, easy just use the checkboxes. Set filters to show only the items in specific categories. | |
CodeTwo CatMan allows sharing of Outlook categories with other users on the local network. Centralized management using a shared configuration file. Version 3.0.1 | |
Exchange Category Manager is a plug-in for Exchange server 2010. Without any interaction to the user's pc or Outlook it enables you to manage the Outlook categories and colors that are available to the users in Outlook 2007 and higher. You can define an unlimited number of groups with different users. Each group can have it's own set of categories and colors that the user can choose from. Per user group you can either add categories to the existing list that a user has in Outlook or replace everything with the predefined list. As it integrates with Exchange server directly the users do not have to do or install anything, their category list is simply automatically managed. | |
Taglocity for Outlook enables users to assign unlimited keyword "tags" to any Outlook items such as email, contacts, calendar entries, etc. Instead of forcing content into conventional folder structures that too rigid, each tag essentially acts as a virtual folder, thus reducing the need for folder hierarchies. To help improve organizational efficiency, Taglocity can also automate common tasks by running actions when tags are set, such as turning email into appointments, assigning additional tags, or automatically moving messages into specified folders. Version 2.0 |
More Information
To set up subcategories
Categories vs. multiple Contacts folders
OL2000: How to Migrate Custom Categories to Other Users (MSKB)
How to use Windows Scripting Host to read the master categories of a user (CDOLive)
Outlook Custom Categories Form — Uses a hidden CDO message to hold the categories for a folder; very handy technique for any type of folder-specific list. (CDOLive)
Backing Up Master Categories (Outlook Tips website)
The power of Outlook Categories (Michael Bauer)
How to Upgrade to Color Categories in Outlook (video tutorial)
Mail merge help:
Mail Merge
Printing Labels or Envelopes for Contacts
Start a Word letter from an Outlook contact
Articles that may interest you:
Last reviewed on Feb 16, 2012
How can I change the title of a category? Mine have the colors assigned to specific events (i.e., birthday, baby, phonecall, etc.). I would like to chang these titles. Is there an easy way to do this?
Please advise.
Thank you!
Click the category button to expand then choose All Categories at the bottom. You can manage your categories from that dialog.
How can I stop Outlook 10 from automaticly adding catagories to my appointments. It even adds additional catagories I don’t want after I’ve assigned a catagorie.
Outlook doesn’t do that. What addi-ns are installed? In Outlook 2010, go to File, Options, Addins to check.
Check for VBA macros by pressing Alt_F11 to open the VBA editor. They would be in ThisOutlookSession (under Outlook Objects)
Hi
How can I sort out my ‘colors’ in outlook 2010. I want to be able to rearange color categories in specific order.
thank you
kat
I want to restore my ‘Category Names and Colors” back to their default setting. How do I do this?
Thanks -
Kurt
How do I color code incoming e-mails from specific persons in Outlook 2010? In the previous version, we clicked on the messeage received from a sender then went to Tools, Organize, Using Colors, then applied a color. All in-box messages from the specified sender are highlighted with the chosen color. Is there a way to do this in Outlook 2010?
Thank you,
Diana
See Where is Organize? – you need to customize the view yourself now.
To remove the categories you added and restore the defaults in Outlook 2007 and 2010, close Outlook and in the Start Search field (Windows 7) or in the Run command (Win XP) type or paste the following command and press enter.
outlook.exe /cleancategories
This will not remove the categories assigned to items and if you want to add those categories back to the master list, you can use the Upgrade to color categories command.
Sorry, you can’t sort or order the color categories, other than by changing the names. The MRU flyout (when you expand the Categories button) is ordered by the most recently used categories. The All Categories list should be alphabetical.
I read this article but I still don’t fully understand. Can I assign contacts into certain catagories and then export them (contacts info and catagories assigned to) to a cvs or other file type in case I want to import them into another computer without having to re-catagorize hundreds of contacts again?
Also is there a way to search contacts by other fields like spouse name?
Yes, exporting to pst, csv, or excel will include the category field. It may be included in other export formats however formats supported by other applications may not be able to use the Category field.
You can use instant search to search any field – in most cases you just need the common field name and if it is a two word field, like Full Name, you type it as one word, no spaces: fullname. In the case of spouse, you just need spouse but using only partner also works. The format is like this:
spouse:chad
I wish to add a legend beside my calendar fto show what the colors mean. How can I do this?
You’ll need to write the legend – one option is to use the page footer – you can save it in a page style so you won’t need to retype it every time.
BTW, the footer doesn’t support colors – you’ll need to use words for the colors.
How can I stop Calendar from changing colors (white to whatever selected) when in “Month” view as I scroll forward month to month?
Hi, i’m an IT and have a problem
1 i did an exchange migration 2003 to 2010
2 I import NK2 file and Categories
3 on one comptuter theyre are categories on Public contacts alla of them are not in the master list.
My question is : how i can remigrate theese categories in master list ?
what i do : Import all public contacts in a random mailbox and try Outlook.exe /remigratecategories
but it dosent work this time.
do you have an anser for me?
Categories in public folders are not global – each user needs to add them to their own category list and also set the colors. You can push the categories in to the master category list using group policies (get the office ADM file). You won’t be able to set the colors though – each user may have the categories in different colors.
You can’t. “this month” is the main month in the view and is white, the past and future months are dark – sorta like how a monthly paper calendar has grayed dates for the last and next months. But since the calendars in outlook scroll, the colors shift as the calendar does. If you use the arrow icon at the top and jump by full months, it won’t be so annoying. (Ok, it’s even more annoying if you use 2 calendars side by side – one keeps shifting light to dark.)
Can I turn a big color category into a group to send an email to?
Yes, use a group by category view then select the category and use it in a mail merge or to send a group message. I can be more specific if i know the outlook version.
I deleted the Master categories from outlook 2010 CALENDAR, I have no idea how to restore them. Could you please help me? However I still have them in the Mail Window.
You want to right click on the top level of your data file or mailbox and choose properties, then Upgrade to color categories. This will add all the categories assigned to items in your data file to the master category list. See Upgrade to color categories if you need screenshots or a tutorial.
We want to assign a color category to each person’s appointments in a shared calendar. However, it seems that these colors don’t “hold” when the secretary assigns the colors. Only she sees the colors. Would we each have to have identical color categories assigned to be able to see the appointments in the colors that she assigned to us?
Yes, you need to have the categories installed on each mailbox – the colors are per mailbox.
@Katie
If you want to share color categories with others in Outlook, be it in a shared calendar, shared tasks, mailbox or any other Outlook folder, there is a freeware tool developed by a company I work for called CodeTwo Catman. We use it ourselve to categorize tasks in Outlook:
http://www.codetwo.com/freeware/catman/?sts=1885
BTW: Great article Diane!
I want emails coming in from color categorized contacts to have a different view when coming in. I see where you can change settings for the view and I create a conditional format that says change the font of the email when it comes in if the contact is in this category. This is not working. any suggestions oh outlook guru? :)
Outlook 2010 – It seems that I can only set up 15 x Calendar Categories – when I add more they drop off the list.
Is there a limit of only 15?
There is not a limit – well, there might be, but its well above 15. The list shows only the last 15 used. Click the All categories link at the bottom to see the full list of categories.
Diane! I was skipped! I have tried working with the conditional formatting every way I can think but there seems to be a disconnect between the categories and filter view. Would you be able to offer any direction?
Much appreciated.
Ken
Sorry I missed it. There is a disconnect between contacts assigned to categories and messages – rules and filters don’t cross reference contacts and their assigned categories.
To create the view you want, you need to use a rule to assign the category when mail arrives – if the contact list is short and fairly static, add the names to the rule individually. If it’s large or you are always adding and removing names, a separate Contacts folder for the “category” members works better. Next, make a custom view for messages assigned to the category. If the list is short, you can skip assigning categories and create a conditional formatting view and list the addresses in the From field – this field accepts domain names so you can apply it to all addresses from a domain.
Thank you Diane! I will test this out.
I’ll add an article on it (or add it to this article, but it’s getting pretty long) . Note that I missed one step – the rule needs to apply to contacts in a specific address book, which just happens to be the contacts folder you moved the contacts to.
Is there a registry hack or some other means to make Outlook 2010 show more than the most recent 15 categories under the Categorize button?
No, I’m not aware of any such hacks. Sorry.
Thanks for such a good article Diane. I came across it as I was trying to find out how to backup the category name that has been applied ot each of my 2000 contacts within Outlook. We use exchange server so if there is a local machine failure, a user’s Outlook can easily be setup again with all e-mails, calendars and contacts. BUT: we recent had an unexplained problem that meant a user’s contacts completely lost ALL category information. We setup up their outlook again form the server and everything was safely there EXCEPT no categories were applied to any contacts. We had to manually reassign each contact to a category! Do you have any suggestions as what files we could backup that would allows to save this information and reassign it if this problem occurs again?
Is there a way to automatically categorize mail that is a reply to already categorized mail in my inbox? For example I receive an email with subject “Test” and categorize iz manually, reply to that email and receive another reply from that person now with subject “Re: Test”. In this case I would like that Outlook auto-assigns this reply with the same category I assigned to the original mail.
Hope this makes sense…
Do you have the reg entry at Outlook 2003/2007/2010 enabled? That should keep the same category that was on the message you replied to.
This reg entry works only for sent email. Example:
I receive an email from Tom – categorize it manually with “Personal”.
I reply to Tom’s email and see in my sent folder that this reply has the same category “Personal” (reg entry takes care of this).
I receive a reply from Tom and have to manually categorize this email again.
So most my emails are conversations with more that 2 replies but I end up manually categorizing them all over again every time I receive them :(
Ah… the only way to avoid adding the category manually is by using rules to set a category on all mail from Tom. It can get to be unmanageable though.
Help! If I categorize inbox messages in Outlook 2010, the category then shows to the recipient I reply to and continually in the conversation. My category read ‘ Must reply to’ and the recipient sees. Also it is annoying becuase if they reply back it looks as if I still need to action ‘must reply to’. How can the category be ‘swiched off’ when replying to an an email?
The default is to not include the category in sent messages – but if you set the sendpersonalcategories registry key, they will be sent out.
I want to assign two color categories to the same Outlook calendar event. One to tell me what conference room I have the meeting in (such as dark blue) and another to tell me if I need to order food for the meeting (such as orange). Is that possible? I’ve added the two different colors to one event but only the dark blue shows up for the item on my calendar.
While you can assign two (or more) categories only the last category color shows in the day, week, month views. In your scenario, i might assign the food category last – then once the food order is placed, remove and readd the room category so you can see which room it is in.
For my calender appointments when I add a category and then remove that category and choose a different category the first category gets added back for some reason. How do I get it to go off of the appointment permantly?
I just lost all my designated assigned Categories. Where did they go on my machine? What is the file name to Restore my designated Categories? I don’t recall clicking the Clear Categories option but I could have as it is at the top of the listing on the drop down. Please help to Restore my assigned Categories as I have spent years creating this file or option to categorize all my 8,000+ Contacts. Thank you.
Right click on the top level of your mailbox – it usually says your name or email address – and choose Properties then Upgrade to color categories. Does that restore them?
I would like to remove catagories that I do not use from the Master Catagory List. When I “delete” a catagory, all it does is change the color to a white box. I would like to completely remove the item from my list leaving only the catagories I have created. Is that possible?
Do you have to use colors in 2010 Outlook? How do I find my Master List?
Yes, you do. You can assign “none” as a color, but its really white.
The master list is now stored in the data file.
Do you want to remove the categories from the items they are assigned to or just remove them from the master list? If you delete a category from the list, any item assigned to the category will show a white block instead of a color. But the category should be removed completely from the master list.
Is it possible to set up another field to create a basic Category list? Until I imported my contacts to Outlook I always Categorized by a descriptive name like Personal, Business, Prospect, Customer etc.
Why does it take up to 30 seconds after changing a colour of a category ( in f.eks. a shared mailbox ), to be updated in another user’s Outlook? This happens in Outlook 2010. It went almost immediately in outlook 2003.
I work in a business where users need Category update go much faster.
Diane, in Outlook (2007) in this case, is there any way to “merge” categories? After 7 years of Outlook emails/archived et al – their are a few duplicate categories and would like to be able to effectively merge them together under one or the other existing categories – or better yet; merge to a new category and delete old ones… help!
i know how to do it when all items using the categories are in one folder, but that is not practical for multiple item types.
Group by category, drag from one category to the other or select the group and choose the new category, deselect the old. For mail, use search folders to find all of the items and right click add the new and the deselect the old category.
i’ll look into it, but the speed is probably related to cached mode. if so, you might be able to speed up the caching updates but it wont improve the speed a lot. What may help is disabling cached mode for the shared mailbox, but then you lose offline access. (Outlook 2010 caches shared boxes by default, 2003 only cached calendars.)
You can still categories by those names – go to Categorize, All Categories and edit the default names.
If you are using contacts categorized in older versions, right click on the root folder (where outlook today is) and choose properties, then upgrade to color categories. that will add them to outlook – you may need to change the colors to suit after you do that.
I have allocated Color Categories to my Contacts in Outlook 2007. I would like the Category colour to be displayed in Business Card view.
Is this possible? If so how?
No, its not possible. Sorry. Well, at least not automatically. You could edit each card to add color.
You could also use the VBA at Using VBA to Change Business Card Image & Layout to change the color or image (the gray vertical bar) based on category.
In my current version of Outlook 2007 there are only color catagories. I have gone through all my contacts and added my catagories only to have them dissapear after restarting the computer , Any ideas would be great.
Hi,
I have a user who wants her Inbox emails to be coloured and sorted by category colour is there anyway to do this in Outlook 2010? She is adamant that this is how she did things before we upgraded her to 2010 and ‘needs’ this to manage her emails. Grateful for any clues,
Is there any way to customize the drop-down list for the “most used” categories? Categories appear there that I don’t want and I can’t get the ones that I do want to appear there. It would be easier than having to open all the categories every time I need to choose a color.
Thanks
No sorry. That is a most recently used list – the last categories you assigned to items should be listed there.
Please help – we use colour coding daily for appointments in the calendar – when I try to change an appointment occurrence it says I can only do it for the series – I cant find a way to change one appointment in a series to a colour, can you please help?
That is how it works with Color Categories – the category is applied to all items in the series. The only solution is to not create recurring appointments.
Dear Diane,
Thanks for posting these useful features for categories. I am interested to work out the following functionality
Let’s say, I received email A from User A and I categorize this email under “Blue” category. I reply to this email and User A replies back on the same email as a further followup. Is there any way to maintain this assigned category in the subsequent correspondence?
Thank you,
Tom Hicks
No, Outlook doesn’t send categories and doesn’t automatically pick up categories from other messages in a conversation. You can use rules, although that can be unwieldy as you’d need one for every conversation.
While not automatic, you can apply a category to all messages in a conversation if you click the category field in a Conversation group header. It will apply to all items currently in the conversation.
Dear Diane,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I came across a default rule setting in Outlook 2010, which is “clear categories on mail
(recommended) (client only)”. What does this do and will disabling this help to maintain the category assigned during subsequent email exchanges?
Thank you,
Tom Hicks.
If someone sends you an email with a category assigned, it is removed. You need to enable the reg key in the Assigning Categories to Sent Email and as long as the recipient doesn’t remove categories, they will see the category you assigned. Colors are per user, so it might be white or in another color on their end, only the category name is sent.