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About this lesson
Those little grey flags beside your email list actually have a useful purpose. Click the Flags as a reminder to get back to certain emails first, and apply a Category color to keep track of similar subjects.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Follow-up Flags and Categories
Stay visually organized with color cues in your inbox.
When to use
Click the Flags as a reminder to get back to certain emails first, and apply a Category color to keep track of similar subjects.
Instructions
- Flags: Along the right side of the Inbox is a set of gray flags. Click a flag to turn it red:
- When finished with the item, click the Flag again to place a check mark “finished” icon, or right-click the flag and select Mark Complete.
- Note: After 24 hours, a flagged email will appear with red text in your inbox:
- Categories: Also along the right side of the Inbox, Categories apply a small dab of color to visually prioritize your similar topics:
- To rename or choose from the 25 available colors.
Note: This list will be the same in your Calendar and Contacts. - Right-click a Category (or select the Categorize button on the Home ribbon) and choose All Categories.
- Choose a Category, click Rename and label it, then choose a new color:
- 00:04 Okay, in this lesson we're going to stay organized by focusing on categories
- 00:09 and flags.
- 00:09 They're on the headers of your inbox.
- 00:13 And the flags over here, I'm not even clicking,
- 00:15 I'm just floating my mouse through and it wants me to turn on one of these flags.
- 00:20 Well, a lot of times I'm running out the door, I don't have time to reply,
- 00:23 but I don't want to lose this email for later and so I'll go ahead and
- 00:27 left click and activate a red flag.
- 00:30 Now if I right click on these flags I have a variety
- 00:33 of shades of red which don't make a lot of sense to me.
- 00:36 I can add a reminder, simply click on the Add a Reminder, type a note,
- 00:41 let's see, Call by 4 pm.
- 00:44 And I'll go ahead and
- 00:45 hit OK on this, when I double click to open that email here's my note.
- 00:49 Call by 4 pm right over here.
- 00:51 Now, I personally would rather use my sticky notes for this feature,
- 00:54 but it is a feature and
- 00:56 it will now pop up in front of me when I need to make that phone call.
- 01:01 It will not add itself as calender appointment but
- 01:03 it will still give you a reminder of call.
- 01:04 When I'm done with that flag, I've made that phone call, I can right click and
- 01:08 Mark as Complete.
- 01:09 And there is nothing better than a bunch of little green check marks
- 01:12 as telling you that you've got that one done.
- 01:15 What if I accidentally click that one?
- 01:17 I can right click and clear this flag and some people ask, well,
- 01:21 why would you bother clearing it?
- 01:22 Because you can sort by flags.
- 01:25 So if I click right up here, I want all my flags to be on the list at the top.
- 01:30 And if I've accidentally clicked one that doesn't need to be there,
- 01:33 I want to make sure it's clear.
- 01:34 So I can right-click and clear a flag so I'm not sorting it into the group.
- 01:38 So that's why.
- 01:39 Now go ahead and click and resort these by received, which is my default sort option.
- 01:45 Let's look at categories.
- 01:46 Now categories, it's not necessarily color coding,
- 01:48 it's just placing them into a color category that you have previously named.
- 01:53 So I can left click and by default it comes in as red.
- 01:57 Now this was a conversation, so they all turned red.
- 02:00 But, a right click will allow you to select a different set, or
- 02:04 go to all categories and choose whichever one you want.
- 02:07 And yes, you can put multiple colors on an email,
- 02:11 if your colors represent certain things.
- 02:13 You can rename these categories and you can go in and
- 02:16 choose from 25 different colors to categorize anything you want.
- 02:20 It's your plan, not mine.
- 02:22 So you make up your own color code system.
- 02:25 All right, so this particular one I've got color coded and
- 02:28 now I can of course sort by categories.
- 02:31 Just click the sort and of course they grouped themselves.
- 02:34 But I could right click and I can expand that group.
- 02:37 Let's see if it'll let me, there you go.
- 02:39 Expand all groups and of course then just sort by categories and there you have it.
- 02:45 All right, now you might not see your categories header up on your inbox.
- 02:51 Sometimes they disappear.
- 02:52 Or at one point you didn't know what it was for.
- 02:54 So you got rid of it just by clicking and
- 02:56 dragging it off, that big black x means delete.
- 02:58 So I'm going to let go.
- 03:00 So you might have the question, where in the world do I get my categories back?
- 03:03 Well, that was on the View ribbon.
- 03:05 And there's an item over here that says Add Columns.
- 03:08 When we click Add Columns, check out the left hand list.
- 03:11 One of them is Categories > Add.
- 03:13 You can move it up to wherever you prefer, or move it down, and then hit OK.
- 03:19 And there we have it, your categories are back.
- 03:21 All right, follow me to the next lesson.
- 03:22 I'm going to show you how to add search folders into your favorites to
- 03:26 combine all your categorized colors into one folder, it is wonderful.
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