You can use color as a tool to identify appointments and events. In Outlook 2003, the assignment of colors and categories was separate from that of other categories, but in Outlook 2007 these have been combined. The easiest way to assign color to an appointment is to use the Categorize drop-down list on the appointment form. You can also create rules that direct Outlook 2007 to assign color labels automatically via the Edit, Automatic Formatting menu option in Outlook 2007.
The Categorize drop-down list on the appointment form shows the different color labels (associated with categories) that you can assign to an appointment as a visual cue to indicate the topic of the appointment. Categories can also reflect appointment importance or requirements. Simply select a color in the drop-down list when you fill in the appointment form. In Figure 20-20, the appointment shown is a business one, and it will be displayed on the calendar in the specified color. To set colors independently of categories, use the automatic formatting rules described in the next section.
You can assign a category to an appointment without associating a color with it, by defining a category and selecting None for the color. Categories without colors will not provide the visual cue that enables you to quickly identify the nature of an appointment, but they still are useful—for example, when you filter your Calendar view by category.
To have Outlook 2007 automatically assign a color label to an appointment, you can create automatic formatting rules.
To create a Color rule, do the following:
Choose Edit, Automatic Formatting to display the Automatic Formatting dialog box.
Click Add to add a new rule.
Type a name and assign a label to the new rule. Figure 20-21 shows a rule to automatically color all Important appointments with the red color.
Click Condition to open the Filter dialog box, shown in Figure 20-22, where you specify the condition for the rule.
Figure 20-22. The Filter dialog box lets you set a filter that defines the condition on which the automatic color rule works.
For details about using filters, see "Customizing the Current Calendar View" on the opposite page.
In this dialog box, assign a condition to the rule. For example, you might use the most basic type of filter and search for a word or phrase in all appointments. In this case, Outlook 2007 will search for the words Phone Conference in the Subject and Notes fields and will apply the rule to mark these appointments as Important (red) if Phone Conference is found.
Click OK to assign the condition to the new rule.
Click OK twice, once to close the Automatic Formatting dialog box and again to close the Customize View dialog box. A rule is now in effect that all appointments with the phrase Phone Conference in their Subject or Notes field will be assigned the red color, designating them as Important.