How to automatically assign color category to meetings after accepting them in Outlook?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified 2025-04-17

In your daily work, you may receive multiple meeting emails in Outlook. Sometimes, you wish to assign a specific color category to meetings automatically when they are accepted. Normally, you can assign them manually, but, this will be troublesome to set them one by one. In this article, I will talk about how to auto accomplish it in Outlook.

Automatically assign color category to meetings after accepting them with VBA code

Automatically assign color category to meetings after accepting them with VBA code

1. Hold down the "ALT + F11" keys to open the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window.

2. In the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window, double click "ThisOutlookSession" from the "Project1(VbaProject.OTM)" pane to open the mode, and then copy and paste the following code into the blank module.

VBA code: Auto assign color category to meetings after accepting them

Public WithEvents SentItems As Outlook.Items
Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Set SentItems = Outlook.Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderSentMail).Items
End Sub
Private Sub SentItems_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
Dim xMeetingItem As Outlook.MeetingItem
Dim xMeetingItemAccepted As Outlook.MeetingItem
Dim xAppointmentItem As Outlook.AppointmentItem
On Error Resume Next
If TypeOf Item Is MeetingItem Then
    Set xMeetingItem = Item
    If InStr(xMeetingItem.Subject, "Accepted:") = 1 Then
        Set xMeetingItemAccepted = xMeetingItem
        Set xAppointmentItem = xMeetingItemAccepted.GetAssociatedAppointment(True)
        With xAppointmentItem
            .Categories = .Categories & "Red Category"
            .Save
        End With
    End If
End If
End Sub

Note: In the above code, you can change "Red Category" to your desired color category name.

3. And then, restart your Outlook to trigger this macro.

4. Then, after accepting the meeting email, and click "Send the Respond Now" option, the specific color category will be assigned to the accepted meeting at once. See screenshot: