Creating new Categories in Outlook 2007/2010 is not as easy as in older versions - you can't just type in the Category field. You can't copy and paste lists into the Master Category dialog. You need to select a color category from the Color Category dialog and create the categories one at a time.
Sending Categories on Email Messages
How to create new color categories
- Begin by clicking on the Categorize button in any Outlook window to expand the Category list.
- Select All Categories to add new or edit existing categories or to select from categories not listed in the menu.
Click New to create a new category or select an existing category to Rename it, or change the color or keyboard shortcut.
Select (check) categories you want to apply to the selected Outlook item.
Tips:
Right click on an item and choose categorize to add or remove categories.
Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple items, then right click, Categorize to apply a category to the selected items.
If using By Category view, you can drag items between categories to change or remove categories.
Video Tutorial
Bulk Add Categories in Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010
To bulk add categories to the master list in Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 requires a two step process.
Note: if the categories are already on one or more Outlook items, skip to Step 2 to add them to the master category list and assign colors. If you want specific colors assigned to a category, you'll need to edit the color or add it to the master last yourself.
Step 1: Add the Categories to a Contact item
- 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.
- Save the contact form.
Step 2: Upgrade to color categories
- Return to the main Outlook window
- Right click on the top level of your data file (where Outlook Today is) and choose Properties
- Click Upgrade to Color Categories button
More Information
- Categories vs. Multiple Contacts Folders
- Categorize Contacts with bad addresses
- Categorize Yammer Messages by Group
- Category Colors Don't Display in Inbox
- Change Category when Task is marked Completed
- Conditional Formatting by Contact Category
- Outlook Categories and Color Categories
- Outlook Categories, Flags, and IMAP Accounts
- Print a list of Outlook Categories and their Colors
- Printing Calendars with Color Categories
- Sending Categories on Email Messages
- To Add Color Coding to Calendar items
- To set up Outlook Subcategories
- Use Upgrade to Color Categories to add Categories to the Master List
- View Shared Calendar Category Colors
Hi!
I've been using Outlook as part of the Office Professional Plus 2013 suite, at this job for a year now. I am a person who desperately needs colors for things. Although there are 25 different colors to choose from, the most irritating this is I cannot change the colors. Many of them are SUPER ugly and many are too dark to use when printed. My boss's boss has tons of colors, but neither of us knows why. I totally don't get why the drop-down color menu for the color selection doesn't have the 'more colors' option, like in EVERY OTHER MS OFFICE APP! This is super irritating. I don't want to make calendar items baby-diaper yellow, or dark army green, or navy blue... besides being a downer in the color dept., when it prints on a calendar, it's hard to read the text. Tell me there is something I can do about this.... Please. I'm begging here. Many thanks for all your helpful pages, btw!! âş
Outlook for windows supports a limited number of colors for visibility - color categories are less useful when there are a bunch of colors that require a hard look to see which color it is. The height and width of the individual colors in this chart are a little larger than the size of the color category boxes on my desktop - too many choices and the colors would blend together.
Help I have recolored my Outlook calender and now the colors are only using two colors. I am on a network
Are the categories in the Categories master list? The usual cause of missing colors is changing the default data file - the categories and color assignments are stored in the default data file.
The latest crash report:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: OUTLOOK.EXE
Application Version: 12.0.6691.5000
Application Timestamp: 52e8c57c
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.3.9600.17114
Fault Module Timestamp: 53648f36
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0001ec81
OS Version: 6.3.9600.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 1033
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C:\WINDOWS\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
NTDLL errors are pretty common and can mean anything. Was there a code with 0x format, something like 0xc0000374 ?
Outlook was doing good, but did a restart after I received emails from a lawyer and from Craigslist? Anything?
Hi Diane...FYI: Holding my breath, scanned the pst files, "errors, folders found 31, items in this file 62983", checked the backup box, it ran its paces, and fingers crossed it seems to have fixed the problems :) Thank you for all your positive energies! Best; Bob
While I'm thinking about this, I have created several folders for various types of emails in my Outlook 2007. The other day it asked me to Archive the sent folder and I did. Question: If you have an existing archive folder and it says to archive the same or a different folder again, will the old archived emails remain in the archive folder when you archive the new patch ??? Question: Can you create individual archive folders for each folder to keep things in order for possible retrieval at a later date ???
They will remain in the data file you archived them to. The messages are moved to the same folder they were in in the original data file. You could create new archive data files each time if you wanted to; many people do yearly or quarterly, depending on the number of messages they receive.
Just finished a successful short and long DPS Self-Test through the HP PC. Test Succeeded: Completion Code: 0. Hard Drive found to be okay. Cleaned out all temp files and tons in the trash bin. Outlook finally gave the customary, "personal files" not closed properly and took 10 minutes to open. Let me see how it acts between now and when I get back this evening. Will keep you posted.
No I have not had time to run the repair yet.