custom views

From the obscure bug (or is it a feature?) department:When you turn the reading pane off or set it to the Bottom, you’ll see all of the field names, with Categories on the far right. If you move the Category field to the left of the From field, you’ll see only the category names - the category color swatch isn't displayed. This bug was introduced in Outlook 2010 but I … [Read more...] about Color Category Field Displays only the Category Name

Sometimes when I slide the width of the columns (from, to, date, etc) all of the individual column widths are stretched. Sometimes they are fixed width - I want that because when they stretch I need to resize all of the columns. How can I force a fixed width? Selecting fixed width in View Settings doesn’t do it.Open View Settings, Other Settings and uncheck Automatic … [Read more...] about Setting a fixed Column Width in Outlook

I have several categories of tasks and use the Categories arrangement but I find that my tasks are sorted in a random way. Is there a way to sort by Due Date within the category?Sure. As you've noticed, if you try sorting by Due Date or click the Due Date button in Arrangement, you lose the Category grouping, but by editing the view you can make it do exactly what you … [Read more...] about Group by Category and Sort by Date

I’m often asked about the “Filter Applied” notation in the status bar of Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013. The person often insists they did not apply a filter to the view and don't understand why it's there.When I right-click on the status bar, Filter is unchecked, but shows "filter applied". Both "items in view" and "unread items in view" are checked but do not show … [Read more...] about Outlook Status bar: Filter applied, no total or unread counts

A user recently had this query:I want to set up a condition that allows me to highlight all messages from my boss, say, as red, then I would also be able to filter to show only those emails highlighted as red.Conditional Formatting (called Automatic Formatting in older versions of Outlook) is used to color messages from someone. This is actually a view and the color … [Read more...] about Tip 1079: Filtering Outlook emails by color