Customizing Outlook | Conditional Formatting & Tag for Organization

 

ADD BACKGROUND COLOR TO EMAIL INBOX

If you're using Outlook, you can automatically color emails from specific people using Conditional Formatting.

New Outlook

1. Select Settings 
2. Go to Mail ➜ Conditional Formatting.
3. Click + Add rule.
4. Give the rule a name.
5. Choose a condition such as From and enter the sender's email address.
6. Select the color to use.
7. Click Save. 

Important Note

Conditional formatting changes the text color or background color shown in the message list. Outlook does not natively support changing the entire email row background color based on sender. 

CREATE A NEW CATEGORY IN OUTLOOK

New Outlook

1. Right-click an email.
2. Select Categorize ➜ Manage Categories.
3. Click Create Category.
4. Enter a name and choose a color.
5. Save the category. 

Apply a Category (Tag) to Emails

• Right-click an email ➜ Categorize ➜ select your category.
• You can assign multiple categories to the same email.

Automatically Tag Emails

You can also create a rule:

1. Go to Rules.
2. Create a new rule.
3. Choose a condition (such as emails from a specific sender).
4. Select Assign it to the category.
5. Choose your category and save the rule.

This will automatically tag emails from that sender as they arrive. 

Calendar events can also be tagged with categories. The assigned colors make it visually nice to separate types of events during the week.

HOW TO CREATE FOLDERS and SUBFOLDERS

Creating folders and subfolders in Outlook is a great way to organize email.

New Outlook

1. In the folder pane, right-click your account or an existing folder.
2. Select Create New Folder.
3. Enter the folder name and press Enter.

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Create a Subfolder

A subfolder is simply a folder inside another folder.

1. Right-click the parent folder (for example, Customers).
2. Select Create New Subfolder or New Folder.
3. Give it a name.

Example:

Inbox
├─ Customers
│  ├─ ABC Company
│  ├─ Contoso
│  └─ Fabrikam
├─ Vendors
└─ Projects

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Move Emails into a Folder

• Drag and drop emails into the folder.
• Or right-click an email → Move → select the folder.

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Automatically Move Emails to Folders

1. Right-click an email from the sender you want to organize.
2. Select Rules → Create Rule.
3. Choose the sender and destination folder.
4. Save the rule.

From then on, Outlook will automatically move matching emails into that folder.

Example setup for a Product Specialist:

Inbox
├─ Customers
├─ Quotes
├─ Orders
├─ Internal
│  ├─ Dee Degooyer
│  └─ Team Updates
├─ Vendors
└─ Completed

This structure makes it easy to find customer communications, manager emails, and completed work.

ASSIGN COLORS TO FOLDERS

New Outlook / Outlook on the Web

Microsoft has added a Folder Color feature to some New Outlook and Outlook on the Web versions.

1. In the folder pane, right-click the folder.
2. Select Change color.
3. Choose a color from the palette. [learn.microsoft.com], [oneminuteo...emagic.com]

If you don't see Change color, your version of Outlook may not support it yet. [learn.microsoft.com]