Tip 253: Identifying Quick Flags

Outlook 2003's Quick flags help you to categorize your messages, but Outlook does not allow you to rename the flags and remembering that a red flag means Very Important, blue means Project A and green is Project B is sometimes hard.

To make it easier, create a new custom toolbar called Flags and add each flag color (and Clear flag) to it. Edit the properties of each button to display the flag color and description.

Not sure where to begin?

1. Go to Tools, Customize. 
2. Add a new toolbar from the Toolbar tab.
3. Drag the flags from the Commands tab, Actions category to the new toolbar.
4. Right click on each button on the new toolbar and change the color name.
5. Select Image and Text from the menu.

Note that the & precedes the Alt+ keyboard shortcut and if two or more visible tools are assigned the same shortcut, you'll need to press Alt+ the key to cycle through all tools and press enter to activate the selected tool.

Published May 9, 2005. Last updated on June 17, 2011.

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