How to Add or Edit Color Categories in Outlook

From flags to traffic signs, colors have always offered orientation. In Outlook, you can use colors to organize all kinds of items — like email messages, contacts, or appointments. The colorful categories make the messages or to-do items stand out among their peers, of course, but you can also create search folders that collect all items categorized in a certain manner, for example.

Outlook comes with a host of standard colors and appropriately named categories ("Blue Category"). It's easy to add your own categories, though, or change the color and name of an existing label. You can even set keyboard shortcuts that either apply or remove categories from highlighted items.

Add or Edit Color Categories in Outlook

To edit your list of color categories:

• Go to your Outlook Inbox.
  • Color categories do not work in IMAP accounts. Make sure you go to your main (personal folders) Outlook Inbox.
• Click the Categorize toolbar button.
• Select All Categories... from the menu.
• Highlight the desired category.
  • To change the category title, click Rename and type the new name in the Name list.
  • To choose a color, click the down arrow next under Color: and click the desired color (or None).
  • To assign the category a keyboard shortcut, click the Shortcut Key list and choose the desired keyboard combination.
  • To remove a category from the categories list (not from items it has been applied to previously), click Delete.
• To add a new color category:
  • Click New.
  • Type the desired title under Name.
  • Click the down arrow under Color: and select the desired color.
  • Optionally, click the down arrow under Shortcut Key and choose the desired keyboard shortcut.
  • Click OK.
• Click OK.