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Dan Mills's avatar
Dan Mills
Copper Contributor
May 14, 2021

Using the new Outlook for Mac - how to view categories?

I am using the new Outlook for Mac, ver 16.49. I am able to apply a category to an email, but there is no option to view all emails that have that category applied. How do I do this? It seems pointless to be able to apply categories if you can't view everything that has had that category applied to it.

 

P.S. it works flawlessly in OWA.

 

Help!

8 Replies

  • stellarartist's avatar
    stellarartist
    Copper Contributor

    Dan Mills Instead of using lots of folders, use one smart folder.  If you put all your archived and categorized mails in one folder, you can sort by category - or sender, subject, date, etc.  Hope this helps.

  • IsaacRogers's avatar
    IsaacRogers
    Copper Contributor

    Dan Mills I named a custom category "Reference". I performed the following search:

    category:reference

    It showed my desired items. I then clicked the "filter" icon towards the right of the search bar. 
    I then clicked "Save Search" and it populated and selected a new item along my left nav bar.

     

    Take care - I repeated this process for "category:widgets", and it overwrote my previous search. I had not navigated back to Inbox after saving the first search. It appears the "Save Search" button is actually an "Overwrite current search" button, if you click it while you are viewing an existing saved search.

    • LMSaunders's avatar
      LMSaunders
      Copper Contributor

      Amen to you IsaacRogers - I was implementing the https://youtu.be/0HbXVuzgk-c?si=FjhRkbFldi8e4QXx and thought I was about to be the victim of Microsoft v Mac yet again.  Why Office365 apps can't have exactly the same features and functionality between Mac and PC is beyond me.

       

      One thing to add - this seemed to go crazy (in terms of creating categories and also searching if I had both webmail open in a browser and the desktop app open at the same time - added advice then, close webmail if setting this up on the desktop app and vice versa).

  • Schnittlauch's avatar
    Schnittlauch
    Iron Contributor
    Hi Dan Mills ,

    have you tried out the following steps?

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_outlook-mso_mac-mso_mac2016/mac-os-outlook-categories/11581eb7-e63a-4a59-822d-e869ae86e44a

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/filter-items-by-category-899f160c-0a65-43a1-987d-f070051d3ea2

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-assign-color-categories-a1fde97e-15e1-4179-a1a0-8a91ef89b8dc

    Best regards,
    Schnittlauch

    "First, No system is safe. Second, Aim for the impossible. Third no Backup, no Mercy" - Schnittlauch

    My answer helped you? Don't forget to leave a like. Also mark the answer as solved when your problem is solved. 🙂
    • Dan Mills's avatar
      Dan Mills
      Copper Contributor

      Schnittlauch Thank you for trying. However, as you can see by my screenshot, Microsoft has removed the "category" option in filtering.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      Also, I am able to manage my categories as well. I can add and delete them, no problem. There is just no way in the navigation sidebar to click on a category to have it show what has been applied to that category, as it does in OWA.

      Thanks again, Dan.

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