How to assign and edit color categories to Outlook items?

Author: Amanda Li Last Modified: 2025-04-07

Assigning color categories to certain Outlook items, such as email messages, events and contacts, allows you to quickly recognize and group related items in Outlook, so that you can easily track them and improve efficiency. If any of the items are related to more than one category, just assign more color categories to it. In this article, we will introduce the methods to assign a color category to an Outlook item, and create your own categories, change the color or name of an existing color category, and other quick methods to apply categories to highlight Outlook items.

Note: Color categories do not work for IMAP accounts.

Create a color category and assign a shortcut key to it in Outlook

Assign a color category to Outlook items (or with shortcut key)

Assign a color category to an Outlook item with Quick Click

Assign a color category to Outlook messages with Quick Step

Edit a color category and its shortcut key in Outlook

Create a color category and assign a shortcut key to it in Outlook

Outlook comes with a set of default color categories, but it will be easier to create and use your own categories, so that you can better spot the associated items.

1. In the "Mail" view, on the "Home" tab, in the "Tags" group, click "Categorize" > "All Categories".
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2. In the pop-up "Color Categories" dialog box, click on the "New" button.
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3. In the new "Add New Category" dialog, give the category a name in the input box, and assign a recognizable color to it. If you want, set a shortcut key to it.
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4. Click "OK". You will see the created category is now listed in the "Color Categories" dialog as shown below. Click "OK" to save the category and close the dialog.
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Assign a color category to Outlook items (or with shortcut key)

To assign a color category to one or more messages, appointments, contacts, or tasks in Outlook, you can do as follows:

1. Select the Outlook items that you will assign a color category to.

2. Assign the category by either of the ways below:

If you did not set shortcut key for the color category you want to assign: Right-click on any of the selected items, click "Categorize" from the drop-down menu, and then select the category you want to assign.
Note: If you accidentally assigned a color category, you can right-click the item and choose "Clear All Categories".
If you have set a shortcut key for the color category you want to assign: Press the shortcut key.
Note: Pressing the same shortcut key again will clear the category.

Assign a color category to an Outlook item with Quick Click

To assign a color category to an email message, go to "View" > "Change View" > "Single" or "Preview". To assign a category to an event or contact, go to "View" > "Change View" > "List". Then:

1. In the "Mail" view, on the "Home" tab, in the "Tags" group, click "Categorize" > "Set Quick Click".
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2. In the "Set Quick Click" dialog, select the category you will assign.
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3. If prompted to rename the category, click "Yes" or "No" as needed.
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4. Hover over a message to see an empty box under the "Categories" column. Click it to assign the Quick Click category.
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Note: Clicking the box again will remove the category.

Assign a color category to Outlook messages with Quick Step

Outlook has a Quick Steps feature that allows you to assign a color category to one or multiple email messages in Outlook with one click. To do so, please follow the steps below:

1. In the "Mail" view, on the "Home" tab, click "Create New" in the "Quick Steps" box.
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2. Click "Choose an Action" to open the drop-down list of multiple actions. Then select "Categorize message".
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3. Click "Choose category" to select the color category that you will assign to messages with Quick Step.
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4. The name of the action will automatically fill into the Name box. You can change it to something more recognizable. You can also set a shortcut key for this action (for example, "CTRL+SHIFT+2"), or edit the tooltip text. Then click "Finish".
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5. Repeat the steps above if you need to create quick steps for additional categories.

6. Now, go back to your mail list. Select the messages that you want to categorize, and click on the quick step you just created in the "Quick Steps" box. The selected messages will then be categorized.
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Note: If you accidentally assigned a color category to an item, you can select the item, right-click it, and choose "Clear All Categories" from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, when creating a quick step, you can choose "Clear Categories" instead of categorizing, to create a quick action that clears categories.

Edit a color category and its shortcut key in Outlook

1. In the "Mail" view, on the "Home" tab, in the "Tags" group, click "Categorize" > "All Categories".
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2. In the pop-up "Color Categories" dialog box, please do as follows to edit a category:

Select the category you want to edit.
Click "Rename" and type a new name.
Click the drop-down arrow under "Color" to assign a different color.
Click the drop-down arrow under "Shortcut Key" to assign a different shortcut key.

3. If you need to edit more categories, repeat the above steps. Once finished, click "OK" to save the changes.

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