applied tips : march 2008
microsoft outlook : color-coding your emails and events
It’s Monday. You took Friday off, and because of your three-day weekend your Inbox is triple its usual size. Are there any important messages from your boss or VIP clients? With all that mail to sort through, it might be a while before you find out.
In order to get a jump on our day, let's take a look at Outlook’s Automatic Formatting feature.
Automatic Formatting color-codes your messages based on criteria you specify, such as importance level, the sender, or whether or not they have been read. For example, you could format any messages sent by your boss in red, messages with the phrase "Project X" in fuchsia, and so on. The Automatic Formatting feature has several preset rules you can use to format e-mail messages, and it’s also easy to create your own. After you’ve finished this article, you’ll know how to do both.
Let’s get started
Make sure you’re Inbox is open (click the Inbox folder in the Folder list if it is not). Click the Organize button on the toolbar to display the Organize panel. If you are using Outlook 2003, select Tools > Organize from the menu. The Organize panel appears. The Organize panel is an easy way to organize the contents of any folder.
Since we want to color-code our messages, click the Using Colors tab on the left side of the Organize panel. The Using Colors tab appears, as shown in the diagram below.
The Organize panel
This panel has two useful rule templates:
- color-code e-mail messages to or from a particular recipient or sender
- color-code messages sent to ONLY you (handy when you want to distinguish between e-mails sent to you by way of a distribution list and messages sent to you only).
Creating your own rule
You can also create your own color-coding rules by clicking the Automatic Formatting button, located in the upper-right corner of the Organize panel.
The Automatic Formatting dialog box appears, with a list of all current automatic formatting rules. If a rule has a checkmark in the box next to it, this means the rule is active. You can also add, modify, and delete automatic formatting rules in this dialog box.
To create your own rule, click the Add button in the dialog box. Type a name for your new rule in the Name box, and click the Font button to select a font and/or color to apply to messages that meet the criteria you specify. Click the Condition button to specify the conditions (criteria) you want to check for. Any item in the folder that meets the conditions you specify will be formatted with the font and color settings you selected.
Color-code your Calendar
In addition to color-coding your e-mail, you can also color-code the appointments and meetings in your calendar! You can color individual or recurring appointments and meetings manually based on their purpose.
To color an event
To color an appointment or meeting, right-click the appointment or meeting, select Label from the shortcut menu, and select a color from the list.
You can also color a recurring appointment or meeting by opening the series and selecting a color from the Label list.
To edit the color list
Microsoft Outlook 2003 has 10 different colors you can use to color appointments and meetings, and each color has been assigned a label. You can change these labels to make them more meaningful to you; for example, you could change the color yellow from “Needs Preparation,” to “Formal Engagements.”
To edit the color list, right-click an appointment or meeting and select Label > Edit Labels from the list. Make your changes in the Edit Calendar Labels dialog box, then click OK.
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