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Using Categories

Outlook for Mac

In the Outlook for Mac application, Categories can help you organize items such as your email messages and calendar appointments. You can apply multiple categories to the same item.

Back to Categories

Categories

Creating a category

1. To create a category, click the Categorize button in the ribbon.

2. Click Edit Categories... This will open a window in which you can manage your existing categories.

3. Click the + button near the bottom of the window to create a new category.

4. Assign a name and colour to your category and click Add. 

5. Your new category will now appear in the list of categories. Close the categories window to finish.

Modifying a category

1. Click the Categories button in the ribbon and click Edit Categories...

2. Here you can change the colour of the category by clicking the coloured box beside the category name, or change the name by double clicking on the name.

3. Delete a category by selecting it then clicking the - button at the bottom of the categories list.

Assigning a category to an item

1. Select the email that you would like to categorize and click the Categories button in the ribbon at the top of the inbox.  This will bring up a drop-down menu with all your categories in it. Select the category you would like to apply to the email.

2. A coloured square will appear on the right hand side of the email that has been categorized in the message list. You will also see the colour and the name of the category in the reading pane of that message.

Retrieving categorized items

1. To retreive categorized items, click the search bar at the top right hand side of the application, then click the Categories button in the ribbbon.

2. In the drop down menu that appears, select the desired category. This will bring up all items that are categorized with that category in the module that you are searching within.