Using Outlook flags and categories to manage emails

 Jan 13, 2015

Here are two quick tips for managing emails in Microsoft Outlook. I’m not going to include ‘folders’ as one of the these tips even though they are a useful option for organising the mass of emails you receive. I suspect most people are already aware of how to make and use folders. Flags If an email you receive requires you to take action, a flag can be a great way to remind yourself of that action. You simply right click on the flag icon next to the email and I recommend choosing the 'Custom…' flag option. flags-categories-1 This is one of the easier ways to get into this menu. flags-categories-2 Here, you can actually change the wording from the generic ‘Follow up’ to describe in more detail what action you need to take. Just click in the Follow up text box and type in what action you need to take. You can set a start date and a due date for your flag. If an email that has a flag on it is past its due date, the email will be coloured red in your inbox. You can also set a reminder, and just like a meeting reminder in Outlook, a message will pop up at that time (provided Outlook is open). If you click on the email you can see this information in the Reading Pane: flags-categories-3 Once you have done the action you need to do, you can also mark the flagged email as complete by right clicking on the coloured flag and choosing the 'Mark Complete' option. Note: because the Flag option is a column, you can sort and search for emails with a flag. Flagged emails are also easy to find because they appear in your tasks area and in the To Do Bar (see my previous blog post for more details about how to turn on the To Do Bar.) Categories Even though you probably already organise emails into folders, sometimes it would be nice to be able to put a ‘tag’ on certain emails of a certain type, for example be able to mark all emails that are complaints with a ‘Complaints’ tag. This is especially useful when the complaint emails are scattered throughout multiple folders. To put a category on an email, right click on the Categories column and choose the category colour. If you haven’t used the category before it will just say ‘Red Category’ or ‘Blue Category,’ and if you choose it by clicking in the coloured square then Outlook will ask you this question: flags-categories-4 This is really just asking, "what does green mean to you?" Categories are completely personal so green might mean ‘high priority’ to you, but to me it might mean ‘Social Club Event.’ You can mark an email with multiple categories. You can use categories not just on your emails but also on your calendar appointments and other Outlook items as well.

If you want to make more categories, you can right click on the categories column and choose All Categories to get this menu. flags-categories-5

Here you can rename the existing categories and click in 'New…' to make more categories. When you do, you’ll notice that you can have up to 25 different colours before you have to start reusing colours, or simply make categories without a colour. flags-categories-6If you use a particular category often, you can even give it a keyboard shortcut from this menu. In a couple of organisations I’ve trained at, they have group inboxes and the employees who use the mailbox use categories with people’s names to mark who is in charge of dealing with a specific email. So there are two ways to organise your emails. Both Flags and Categories can be sorted and searched for which should make finding those important emails a lot easier.

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About the Author:

Matthew Goodall  

Matthew is a qualified Microsoft Office Specialist, Microsoft Certified Applications Specialist and a Microsoft Certified Trainer with over 11 years of hands-on experience in a training facilitation role. He is one of New Horizons most dynamic instructors who consistently receives high feedback scores from students. Matt enjoys helping students achieve real professional and personal growth through the courses he delivers. He is best known for creating “fans” of students, who regularly request him as an instructor for any future courses they undertake at New Horizons.

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