How to Edit Category Colors for MS Outlook Email and Calendar

Categories within Outlook make it easy to group related items -- emails, events, people -- so that they're easier to find.

Applying colors (or editing the default color selections) allow you to more easily spot and recognize related items at a glance, to improve efficiency.

This document provides the step-by-step instructions to edit category colors to your liking.

(Note: Color selections are defined "locally" on an individual's computing device or within a specific account on one. Tagging an item with a "purple" category on your device and sharing the item with someone does not guarantee that it will be "purple" on their device. Unfortunately, due to limiations within Outlook, there is no way to automatically synchronize color information from device to device.)

Outlook Desktop App (Windows PC)

Email Mode

  1. Click the down triangle next to "Categories" in the ribbon.
  2. Select "All categories..."
  3. Select the category you wish to edit.
  4. Choose a new color from the "Color" drop-down menu on the right.
  5. Repeat as desired to change other categories.
  6. Click the "Ok" button to save changes.

Calendar Mode

  1. Select an event.
  2. Click the down triangle beneath "Categories" in the ribbon.
  3. Select "All categories..."
  4. Select the category you wish to edit.
  5. Choose a new color from the "Color" drop-down menu on the right.
  6. Repeat as desired to change other categories.
  7. Click the "Ok" button to save changes.

Outlook Desktop App (Apple Macintosh)

Email Mode

  1. Click the down-triangle beside "Categorize" in the ribbon.
  2. Select "Edit categories..."
  3. Click the color dot beside the category you wish to change.
  4. Select the new color from the drop-down menu that appears.
  5. Click the red "close" button in the upper-left corner to save changes.

Calendar Mode

  1. Select an event.
  2. Click the down triangle beside "Categorize" in the ribbon.
  3. Select "Edit categories..."
  4. Click the color dot beside the category you wish to change.
  5. Select the new color from the drop-down menu that appears.
  6. Click the red "close" button in the upper-left corner to save changes.

Outlook Web App (at https://office365.bowdoin.edu)

  1. Click the Settings (gear icon) in the upper right.
  2. Click "View all outlook settings..." at the bottom of the right frame.
  3. Click "General" in the left column.
  4. Click "Categories" in the center column.
  5. Click the color tag beside the category you wish to change.
  6. Select the new color from the drop-down menu that appears.
  7. Repeat as desired for other categories.
  8. Click the "X" in the upper-right corner to close and save changes.

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