How can I see tasks filtered by category?

[rainmountain]

Great news that categories in Outlook are now mirrored in To Do (at least in the browser version for now https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=63231).

Now: is there a way I can see my tasks filtered by category in To Do?

[#2]

@rainmountain Excellent question! I do not think there is a way to do this. And this makes the categories pretty useless at this point.

[#3]

@rainmountain 

I appreciate this is a few months old but I had the same question. The closest I have got to this is to do the following:

- Go the Outlook Desktop App

- Go the My Tasks tab

- Select To Do List

- Change the settings to group by category

(Home Ribbon --> Current View-->Simple List --> Right Click --> View Settings --> Group By --> Categories)

It's a work around - a bit clunky as I can't find this on the browser version of Outlook or To Do

[#4]

Thank you @NadiyaK. That's a good workaround to see the tasks sorted by category in Outlook. As To Do is my Task-Manager Application across platforms I would still like to see this within To Do. 
Just found this: some information on how to add categories in To Do (and on how this will affect Tasks created from flagged Emails): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-steps-importance-notes-tags-and-categories-to-your-ta... 

[#5]

I agree @uozdemir . The search bar seems to only search the name of the task or hashtags. Seems like a big miss if you are going to add the functionality to categorize tasks but then can't search or filter by task.

[#6]

I see the functionality to add a category in Microsoft To-Do online. But is there a way to view all tasks assigned to a particular category in Microsoft To-Do online? @NadiyaK 

[#7]

@SamMayle Not that I can see.

It's a shame to be missing this functionality!

[#8]

You can go to Outlook Mail online, settings, view all Outlook settings, general, categories, add categories to favorites, and then you can click on them in the left-hand pane, and all tasks, calendar events, and emails that have that category assigned will be shown.

[#9]

@SamMayle Does it only work for 365 subscription users？

[#10]

@Ksgch Sorry, I am not sure if it only works for 365 subscription users. I have an Office 365 for business subscription.

[#11]

@Ksgch 

Here u can see the options menue in outlook web. May it helps

[#12]

Thanks a lot.

[#13]

After a few tries, i've found another workaround. I've an Outlook 2019 version and u can still force an Categories View.

1. Set View Group by Categories in ur Inbox
2. Then go to Task view and go to Categories and Edit or Add Categories like what u want.
3. Then Create a "Pseudo" Task in an Category ( this is neccesary to show off the category).
do this for every Category which u need.
4. Set Task View in ur Inbox

Now ur Screen in ur Inbox  should look sth. like this

Now if u want to Assign a Category on an Email, u have to Flag ur Email first.

Then the email should appear on the right as unassigned task.

Now u have to go only once in the task view and then u can go back to ur inbox this is neccessary to move the mail to an other category otherwise it comes an error that the mail is modified and u cant do that. .

Now u can drag and drop ur mail in ur category which u want.

And when ur Task is over u can drag the Mail for example in an Category like Done

It not perfect, cause u have to drag and drop ur mails in ur inbox for change the category, but i think its quite okay i u want to still work with categories

best regards

[#14]

@rainmountain agreed - and I rely heavily on categories.  If MS does not address this, I will unfortunately, and inconveniently, need to move away from using outlook for tasks.

[#15]

Thank you @SamMayle. This works to see the list of To Do items. However:

• Native To Do items look odd, without a "sender."
• They have an error message: "This item must be returned to its original folder before it can be viewed." In other words, it does not look like To Do items are compatible with this view.
• I don't see a way to add an item to My Day in this view.

[#16]

Any further update on this yet? Thanks.

[#17]

@rainmountain - Another possible work-around is to use Shared Lists instead of categories to contain all the tasks that are related. For example, I have a personal email and a work email. I also have separate computers for work and personal but want to be able to add or view the work tasks and the personal tasks from either computer. I do this by creating a shared list for work tasks and another for personal tasks. The Shared Lists are shared between my work Userid and my personal Userid.  This allows all my work and personal tasks to be visible across all my devices, including mobile. If you have a manageable number of categories, you could create a Shared List for each category. The shared list would only hold the tasks for that category. So, for example, if you wanted a category for Project X tasks, create a Shared List called Project X Tasks and use it for all the tasks for Project X. Do the same for Project Y, Project Z, etc. There's a bit of setup time to create the Shared List, but otherwise it seems to work. 

[#18]

@rainmountain 
Once categories are assinged, they become searchable in the global search bar.

[#19]

I just tested it by creating a task with only the word 'Test' in it and assigned it a category which was called 'Hardware'.
Then I searched for Hardware in the global search bar - the 'Test' task was not found...