I am delegate for several executives and meeting requests sent to them come into my Inbox. I'd like to differentiate between them so I can see at a glance which are Tom's, which are Mary's, which are Harry's etc. I tried to set up a rule to add a category but can't find the right expression to use. Is there a way I can do this?

Rules won't work because the meeting is sent to you, the delegate, and the executive's name is in the Received Representing Name field and this field is not exposed in Rules Wizard.

However, you can do it if you can use script to read the field value and set the category. To make it easier as executives come and go, my macro uses the value of the Received Representing Name field as the category. When you get a new exec, all you need to do is add their category to your master list. Note: This macro will add your own name to the category field.

1. Open the VB Editor using Alt+F11
2. Right click on Project1 and choose Insert > Module.
3. Paste the following code to the module.
4. Create a rule to run this script when a meeting request arrives.

See How to use Outlook's VBA Editor for more information.

Sub CategorizeMeetings(oRequest As MeetingItem)
 
If oRequest.MessageClass <> "IPM.Schedule.Meeting.Request" Then
  Exit Sub
End If

Dim strAcct As String
Dim propertyAccessor As Outlook.propertyAccessor
Set propertyAccessor = oRequest.propertyAccessor

strAcct = propertyAccessor.GetProperty("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x0044001f")
Debug.Print strAcct
oRequest.Categories = strAcct
oRequest.Save
End Sub