Syncing categories from Outlook to To-Do

[Boudewijn Okkema]

I am using categories in Outlook to categorize my actions. Is there a way to sync these categories into T-Do?

For example: task marked with the yellow category (Follow Up) should end up in a similar list in To-Do (called Follow up)

[#2]

Hello Boudewijn Okkema
 
Thank You so much for your valuable suggestion! User feedback and suggestions are really important to us as we work to improve Microsoft To-Do.
 
The Categories syncing from outlook to Microsoft To-Do is a really good idea and we will consider adding it in a future update.
 
In the meantime, we encourage all our users to post their ideas for future features and up-vote similar suggestions on "Microsoft To-Do User Voice"  -

https://todo.uservoice.com/forums/597175-feature-suggestions
 
This idea has already been posted by another user, so I would suggest that you vote for it below so that our development and management team will take this idea into consideration .
 
https://todo.uservoice.com/forums/597175-feature-suggestions/suggestions/18982771-use-outlook-catego...
 
We base our choices for future features on what our users most request, so you should add your ideas, comments, and votes!
 
Thank you for your patience as we work on this and many other improvements to Microsoft To-Do!
 
Best Regards,
Kiran Teja

[#3]

@Kiran Thalakokkula I use GTD Methodology to organize my tasks by categories in Outlook and would love to see Categories synced with To-Do App. The only App on iPhone supporting Category Sync now is Task-Task or Task&Notes on Android. Such a shame To-Do doesn't support it yet!!!

[#4]

@Kiran Thalakokkula  The user voice post you suggested was merged into a different suggestion regarding groups and has nothing to do with Outlook Categories. While the groups are a great addition, they don't address syncing categories from Outlook. There are several posts requesting Outlook Categories to sync to To-Do, some in other languages. The one with the most votes, 874 at the moment, is this one:

https://todo.uservoice.com/forums/597175-feature-suggestions/suggestions/36965485-add-outlook-catego... 

It would be really great if the To-Do team could look through the User Voice posts on a regular basis and merge the ones that really are about the same topic.

[#5]

@Kreera House  I totally agree it is not the same. While creating groups is a nice functionality it does not really help me. I often add e-mails to my to do lists and I would like to have a function in outlook to make sure they end up in the right bucket/list. In outlook working with categories works fine, but these categories do not sync in to do. In outlook I do not have an option to add e-mails to the to do lists.... so I end up categorizing twice. 

[#6]

I still agree that it would be great if MS To-Do / Tasks could show you your Categories from Outlook automatically. Just as they've automatically shown "Flagged Email", "Assigned to Me", "Planned" and "Tasks". It would be great if these categories were linked to the To Do Tasks with each of them on the left as a category. I use about 4 categories daily to keep up with all of the various status emails/tasks/followups are in across hundreds of emails before putting them in their folder when closed out/completed/confirmed.

I will not duplicate them manually in To-Do and assign them manually. I will use a 3rd party like Asana with the Outlook extension (right click, create Asana task, assign to project/category, create) before I do that since they work better for managing multiple projects, major tasks, and sub-tasks.

[#7]

@guran99 
I use hashtags  # in subject lines in Outlook to tag an email since those are searchable in To Do. So for example if I am waiting for a reply on an email, when I send the email out I add #wf to the subject line, set the follow up flag (so it will go to To Do) and save a copy in @waitingfor folder in Outlook.  (I have rules that automatically set the flag and move an email to @waitingFor if it sees #wf in the subject line).

Because that email is flagged it will show up in the Flagged Email list in To Do.  Now that it is in To Do I can search for it by searching for the tag #wf and it will show up and I can move the 'task' to whatever list I want. (Here is video I put together on To Do integration since people were asking - hope that helps...    https://youtu.be/r0jK54jLwFw )

[#8]

It still appears that synching categories to Microsoft To Do is a missing BASIC feature. Not synching categories to Microsoft ToDo drastically reduces the benefit of using MS Tasks and ToDo together and using MS as INTEGRATED suite of tools. When will this defect be addressed?