A category is a specific word or phrase that you can use to group your Outlook items so you can easily find them later. I should say ‘logically’ group items because they can be stored in different folders. For example, if you are working on a business project, you can assign all related items (e-mails, notes, contacts, and so on), to the same category (such as business or the specific project name). When you want to bring up items related to your business project, you can do so using the category you assigned the items to.

When it comes to using Categories, Outlook includes a Master Category List. You can group your items using the predefined categories or you can create your own categories. Once you have Outlook open, select the item/items you want to assign to a specific category. An item can include e-mails, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, appointments, and so on. You can select more than one item by holding down the CTRL key as you highlight them. Then, from the Edit menu, click the Categories option. From the list of Available Categories that appears, select the category you want to assign to the items. Keep in mind that you can assign an item to more then one category.

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