Let Outlook colour special emails (for example emails with notes)

Here’s a quick tip that you can use to get Outlook to automatically display special emails in a different colour so that they stand out in your Inbox (or any other folder)

In this example we will be using this technique to display in green bold any emails that you have added notes to (using Email Notes for Outlook).

Step By Step

1. Go to the Folder in which the emails are. This can be the Inbox or any other folder.

2. In Outlook 2010, Click View on the Ribbon and then click View Settings.

On all other versions of Outlook, on the menu at the top, Click View – Arrange By – Current View – Customize Current View to display the Customize View screen.

3. In Outlook 2010, Click the Conditional Formatting… button

On all other versions of Outlook, click Automatic Formatting… button

4. Click the Add Button

5. Enter a name e.g. “Emails with Notes”

6. Click the Font button and using the resulting screen to choose how you want emails to be highlighted (I chose the colour Green and Bold). Click OK to return to the previous screen.

7. Click the Conditions… button to display the Filter screen.

8. Click the Advanced Tab

9. Click the Field button > User-defined fields in Inbox > EmailNotes
10.  For the Condition: drop-down, select “is (exactly)” and for the Value: enter “Yes”.

11. Click Add to List

12. Now OK your way back to the Outlook Inbox

You should now notice that any emails with notes would appear in the format you have defined.

In this example we have used this technique to highlight emails with notes linked to them. You can also use the same technique to highlight any emails that are important to you (e.g. emails from you main clients/manager etc).