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How to Search by Category in Outlook (Using Favourites & Search Folders)

by Steve Galloway | Mar 16, 2026

Using Categories to search for emails

Searching your email by category is a fast way to stay organised, especially for volume email users and if you rely on colour‑coded workflows. Outlook now offers two reliable ways to do this. The simplest method uses categories which you have saved as favourites in your Outlook folder pane.

For more complex needs, Search Folders still offer the most control. This guide shows Microsoft’s recommended approaches and explains what currently works on Windows, web, and Mac.

Hot Tip!! This guidance is written for “New” Outlook. Outlook Classic is scheduled for deprecation in the medium term.

Click open the headers below to learn more about how you can use categories to simplify your searches in Outlook. You can jump to associated articles about Outlook Categories here:

You can return to our Index of Articles by clicking here.

1. The fastest method: using favourited categories in New Outlook

If your goal is simply to search by category in Outlook, the quickest method is to favourite the categories you use most.

How it works

When you favourite a category, it appears in the left‑hand folder pane. Selecting a favourited category instantly filters your mailbox to show every message tagged with that category. It behaves like a dynamic “saved search” without requiring any setup.

Why use this method?

Instant filtering without typing a query
Always up to date as new mail arrives
No Search Folder required
Works in:
- New Outlook for Windows
- Outlook on the web
- New Outlook for Mac

Find out how to create Outlook Categories in this article.

2. When you need more: use Search Folders for complex searches

Favourited categories handle single‑category scenarios well. But if you need multi‑criteria filtering—for example:

Category + specific sender
Category + unread items
Category + timeframe
OR combinations (e.g., Category A or Category B)

…then a Search Folder is still the best solution.

What is a Search Folder?

A Search Folder is a virtual folder that stores criteria and updates in real time. It works like a reusable saved search. Although the new Outlook does not let users “save a search,” it does support Search Folders.

Outlook provides a saved searchesd folder in your folder pane to which you can add search folders.

Creating a Search Folder (New/Classic Outlook for DESKTOP)

Right click on Saved Searches Folder → select New (or Add) Search Folder
Choose a preset, or select Create a custom Search Folder
Select Criteria to define filters such as:
1. Category
2. From:
3. Subject
4. Keywords
5. Date
Name the folder clearly (e.g., Finance, Categorised, 2026 invoices) and Save.

in this example, a category caslled “Outstanding” has been selected. More attributes can be added to filter your search further.

Add your saved search to Favourites

For extra convenience you can make your saved search a Favourite. This puts a shortcut towards the top of your folder pane near Inbox, Sent, etc. The folder still resides in your Saved Searches folder.

Outlook on the Web: mixed support

Outlook on the web supports Search Folders at the mailbox level, but it does not allow you to pin them to Favourites in the same way the Windows desktop app does.

Practical notes:

Search Folders still work and remain visible
You cannot favourite saved search folders
For quick access, Microsoft recommends using favourited categories instead

If you need to reliably search by category in Outlook on the web, favouriting categories remains the simpler option.

New Outlook for Mac: saved searches exist, but pinning does not

At time of writing, Outlook for Mac allows users to create search queries and save them. However, adding saved searches or Search Folders to the Favourites pane is not supported. Drag‑and‑drop behaviour sometimes appears to work, but it is inconsistent and not officially documented.

Mac users who need fast access to tagged mail should rely on favourited categories until Microsoft expands this feature.

Practical tips for smoother workflows

Use meaningful names
- For Search Folders, name them for purpose: e.g., Client Work – Categorised or Finance – Outstanding.
Combine categories with other filters
- Ideal when you need more than a simple category filter.
Keep the list clean
- Remove old Search Folders to reduce clutter.
Use categories as your backbone
- Especially if your primary aim is to search by category in New Outlook
Plan a taxonomy that can be managed over time
- planning a structure helps to reduce bloat and redundant categories. Also, a documented taxonomy helps colleagues who may need to duplicate categories – remember. categories operate at a user level, not an organisational level.

Summary

If you want to search by category in Outlook, the fastest and most widely supported method is simply to favourite your categories and use the dynamic filter. This works across Windows, web, and Mac.

For advanced filtering, Windows users can rely on Search Folders, which remain the best way to create a complex, reusable saved search. On the web and Mac, Search Folder support is more limited, so categories offer the most consistent experience.

If you need help or want advice about planning a category taxonomy, please get in touch, or use our contact page to organize an appointment which suits your timetable. You can return to our Index of Articles by clicking here.

How Outlook Categories Transform Email Management: A Simple Guide for Everyday Users

by Steve Galloway | Mar 6, 2026

Introduction

Most Outlook users still rely on folders to store and manage their email. It’s familiar, and for small volumes of email it works well enough. But as your mailbox grows, folders start to break down. Messages fit into multiple topics, threads get split across separate folders, and it becomes harder to find what you need quickly. Outlook categories solve this problem.

Outlook Categories turns your Inbox or Sent Items into a dynamic, instantly searchable workspace. Instead of dragging email into rigid folders, you add one or more coloured tags – i.e. Outlook Categories to an email. These tags make it possible to filter and group messages on the fly—exactly the way people already search the web using keywords, not folders.

Enter the name of a category you want to filter in “search” and turn your Inbox into a dynamically generated folder which lists activty associated with your tag, e.g all items tagged with “Brian” in this screenshot.

Click open the headers below to learn more about Outlook Categories. You may also be interested in these associated articles.

Support options are available for professional assistance.For help planning a taxonomy that can be managed over time, please contact us.

Why Folders Don’t Scale

Folders are great for tidy filing cabinets, but email doesn’t behave like paperwork. Common problems include:

Emails often belong to more than one folder. A message from a supplier might relate to two different projects. Which folder should it go in?
Moving an email breaks the thread. If part of the conversation is in another folder, you lose context.
Folder structures change over time. Projects evolve, businesses reorganise, priorities shift. Your folder tree becomes a maze.

As your mailbox grows, rigid storage (folders) become harder to maintain, not easier. This is why search engines like Google and Bing are so successful. We search by keyword (or category) and it works. So, we already use keywords every day to sort information. As your email volumes grow, keywords or categories become the logical way to rapidly find emails and threads.

Why Outlook Categories Work Better

Outlook Categories act like keywords or tags. An Outlook Category is a flexible, stackable, colour-coded label that help you recognise and organise email instantly. You can:

apply multiple categories to a single email
search or filter by category in seconds
change categories without moving the message
build dynamic, instant “views” of your Inbox

In other words, your Inbox becomes a smart workspace—no filing cabinet required.

Use categories to filter large Inboxes for emails tagged with a category to create a dynamic folder from your Inbox or Sent Items

Real Example: Tracking Deliveries Using Outlook Categories

Consider this scenario: at any one time we might have several outstanding orders from retailers or suppliers. If everything is delivered “next day”, that’s fine. Sometimes, though, a delivery may take weeks to despatch. We can put our Inbox to work to track deliveries using Outlook Categories to know what you have ordered and what has arrived.

Outlook Categories: example workflow setup

You need two categories (see this article to learn how to create a category):

Outstanding (colour-coded, for items not yet received)
Delivered (or “Complete”, for orders that have arrived)

Outlook Categories: track deliveries

This how the workflow looks once your categories are established:

When you receive an order confirmation, apply the Outstanding category.
When the goods arrive, change it to Delivered
Use Outlook’s filter (i.e. Search) options to show only Outstanding emails when you want to check what you’re still waiting for.
Switch filters to Delivered if you need to confirm what has arrived

Rather than using a tag called Delivered, you could call the tag Completed – this way you could use one tag to deal with other projects or tasks that are completed. This becomes an issue of planning and category management. When creating categories it is helpful to have a plan of how tags should be organised to make it easier to manage your “taxonomy” over time.

At their simplest level, Outlook Categories can manage individual recipients, groups, subjects/projects, and more.

To find out how to create an Outlook Category, see this article.

How to Filter Emails by Category

To bring fingertip power to Categories powerful, first add them to Outlook’s filter options in the Search utility.

Go to your Inbox or Sent Items
Click the Filter icon at the right of the Outlook Search field*
Choose Add, More Filters or Search Tools → Advanced Find (depending on version).
Add Categories as a filter field

Optionally, you can add Categories as their own field to make frequently used or topically important Categoires available in your Search drop-down.

*Hot Tip: the fliter icon does not appear by default inthe Outlook Search field. Instead, hover your mouse over the right side of your Search field to reveal the filter options icon.

Why Outlook Categories Beat Folders for Productivity

With Outlook Categories, you gain several long‑term advantages:

Speed: Find what you need in seconds
Flexibility: One email can have multiple categories
Reduced clutter: Your folder list stays simple
Consistency: Categories remain relevant even as your work changes
Better search: Filters turn your Inbox into a powerful, dynamic dashboard

Most importantly, categories match how people already think. We tag photos, tag social media posts, tag documents—and we search the internet using tags or keywords. Categories simply bring that same modern approach to email.

Try Outlook Categories

If you struggle to keep on top of overflowing folders, or if you feel like you can never find the right message when you need it, give Outlook categories a try.

Start small with your Outstanding and Delivered tags, and once you see how much time you save, you can expand categories into other areas—projects, clients, personal admin, travel, invoices, support requests, and more.

Your email doesn’t need more folders. It needs better visibility. For large volumes, several emails can be selected (for instance in a folder) and categorised. However, with long established folder structures it mighjt not be practical to try to convert all emails to categories. Often, categories and folders co-exist. Folders become important in situations where a multiple users need access to a folder.

Lastly, note that categories are not easily assigned at an organizational level. So, if you work within an organizational group, it makes sense to establish a policy that colleagues can conform to.

About ComStat.uk: Internet Service Provider Comstat provides IT support, web hosting, and media services including website design, Microsoft 365 setup, and audio/video production, serving businesses across Denbighshire, North Wales and Wirral from Ruthin, and Lancashire and the Northwest from Bolton.

How to Use Outlook Sweep to Declutter Your Outlook Inbox

by Steve Galloway | Oct 7, 2025

What Is Outlook Sweep and Why Should You Use It?

If your inbox is overwhelmed with newsletters, promotions, and recurring emails, use Outlook Sweep to help you regain control. Available in both the Outlook desktop app and Outlook Web Access (OWA), Sweep lets you create simple rules to automatically manage emails from specific senders.

Sweep is especially useful for:

Automatically deleting old messages
Keeping only the latest email from a sender
Setting expiration rules for newsletters or updates

Whether you’re using Outlook at work or at home, Sweep can help you stay focused by reducing clutter and keeping your inbox tidy.

Click open the headers below to learn how to Outlook Sweep to manage your email Inbox. Support options are available for professional assistance.

How to Use Sweep in Outlook Desktop and OWA

Using Outlook Sweep is straightforward. Here is how to get started in desktop and web versions of Outlook.

Outlook Sweep is available by default in Outlook toolbar. The button’s position differs according to how you might have customized your toolbar in Outlook desktop and OWA

Outlook Sweep in Desktop App

Open your inbox and select an email from the sender you want to manage.
Click on the Home tab.
Select Sweep from the toolbar.
Choose one of the available options:
1. Move all messages from the sender
2. Always keep the latest message and delete the rest
3. Delete messages older than 10 days
4. Move messages to a folder

Outlook Sweep in Outlook Web Access (OWA)

Log in to Outlook on the web (OWA).
Select an email from the sender.
Click the Sweep icon in the toolbar above your inbox.
Choose your preferred rule and confirm.

These rules apply automatically to future emails from the same sender, saving you time and effort.

Smart Ways to Use Sweep: Real-Life Examples

Outlook Sweep avoids the perceived complexity of Outlook Rules

Sweep does more than deleting emails—it’s about finessing your inbox. Here are a few clever ways to use it:

1. Scan and Auto-Delete Newsletters with Outlook Sweep

Often, we want to scan an incoming email newsletter but we do not need to see it again. You can use Use Outlook Sweep to delete messages older than 10 days. This gives you time to read the newsletter, and then purges the spent content to keep your Inbox clean.

2. Keep Only the Latest Update with Outlook Sweep

Some services send frequent updates—like DMARC delivery notifications, login confirmations, or system alerts. Use Sweep to keep only the latest message from the sender. This way, you always have the most current info without the clutter.

3. Organize by Category

You might want to keep promotional emails but store them separately. Use Outlook Sweep to move messages to a folder like “Promotions” or “Newsletters.” This keeps your main inbox clean while preserving the content.

See this 90 second video for other quick tips for dealing with unwanted emails in your inbox.

Summary

Combine Sweep with Rules and Focused Inbox for even better control.
Review your Sweep settings monthly to adjust for new senders or habits.
Don’t forget to check your folders—Sweep moves emails but doesn’t delete them unless specified.

Outlook Sweep is a simple and powerful way to automate your inbox management. User feedback suggests that it the utility plays an increasing way to surgically prune bloat from inboxes. Espeically as inboxes start reaching storage capacity, Outlook Sweep is a great way to delet email in bulk without having to scroll, select, and delete manually.

Microsoft Outlook Categories

by Steve Galloway | May 28, 2025

Microsoft Outlook's "Categories" Feature

Use Microsoft 365 Categories to organize and manage your Outlook email, calendar, contacts, and tasks.

Tag your Outlook content with Categories to visually distinguish projects and priorities with colour-coded tags to visually differentiate content at-a-glance.

Find things fast with Categories

Categories help you visually target important content in your ever-growing email folders, calendars, and more. Also, you can search across Outlook for emails, events, and tasks that are tagged with the same category. Used in a well planned scheme, you can use categories to filter an Inbox to create virtual folders on demand. This avoids duplicated content in unwieldy folder structures which leads to broken email threads and lost attachments.

Click on the headers below to find out how to create and customize your categories. Click or tap on images to see in full screen. See also our articles about categories:

What are categories for?

Outlook Categories help you organize and manage email, contacts, calendar events, and tasks. For instance, instead of moving or copying emails to folders, you can keep emails in your Inbox and tag emails with categories. This way, you can filter your Inbox on demand to show one or more categories.

Categories reduce confusion

In situations where an email is saved in two folders which might lead to multiple email threads for the same message, it is more efficient to keep the original email in your Inbox and assign two categories to that email.

Using tags you can:

create category names and colours
tag and group related emails
organize your calendar events by type, such as meetings, personal appointments, or deadlines
group your contacts as family, friends, colleagues, or clients
organize your tasks by project, priority, or status

Enter the name of a category you want to filter in “search” and turn your Inbox into a dynamically generated folder which lists activty associated with the tag. e.g all items tagged with “Brian” in this screenshot.

Categories are usually used at an individual level. However A shared email account would rely on categories established for that account. Uniform categories can be established at an organizational level. This requires adminstrator-level knowledge.

How to create and manage tags

Use this workflow to start creating and customizing your tags:

create a new email in Outlook
click open the <Categories> dropdown list.

Outlook always lists a few categories. These are intended as a starting point. In the illustration below notice that there are user-defined categories instead of the defaults. This means Outlook’s original categories have been customized, and new categories added to the user’s library. Notice towards towards the bottom of the list the options for creating, edit, and showing categories. Click on <New category> to create a new category.

Use <all categories> to view categories. You can use the <search> field at the top of the dropdown box to pinpoint categories. Once you create a category, the same tag can be used in Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks.

Editing and managing categories

You can edit existing tags to change names and colours. In any email composition and calendar event windows, pull down the <categories> dropdown menu and click open <Manage categories>. Her you can “fave” categories, and you can click on the pencil icon to edit category properties. In the image below, clicking on the pencil in the DNS/web row would open the properties for that category.

Planning Categories

Exit strategies matter. Plan a structure for your categories to avoid duplication and confusion. Unchecked, category libraries can become so large that users forget what categories they already have.

For instance, if you are tagging customers, it might makes sense to have a category for “customer”, but also a drill-down or sub-heading category called “customer”-“customer surname-initials”. For example, a <heading>-<sub-heading> category might look like:

customer-smith-a

This way “customer” is a global header, and the other fields are sub heading. Organising a strategy for categories helps you manage your list as it grows. This can be likened to departments, which is a common feature in charts of accounts.

Summary

Outlook Categories add a flexible and visual way to keep your Outlook items organized, making it easier to manage and search your communications and schedules as your database grows.

Categories are intended for individual use, but organizations might opt to have individual users follow a common colour-coding theme and defined list defined by a manager to adopt in their own instance of Outlook. Categories can be established at organizational level. This requires administrator level implementation.

About ComStat.uk: Internet Service Provider Comstat provides IT support, web hosting, and media services including web design, Microsoft 365 setup, and audio/video production, serving businesses across Denbighshire, North Wales and Wirral from Ruthin, and Lancashire and the Northwest from Bolton.

Outlook templates

by Steve Galloway | Jan 28, 2025

Resend Message tool for email templates

<Resend message> is an easy method for creating and managing email templates in Outlook.

Template tools are not intuitively easy to organize in Outlook and require detailed knowledge. One option is to use Signatures to manage templates. Signatures can be inconvenient too when you want to save a longer of standardised emails this way.

Instead, use <Resend Message> to build a library of standard form emails to improve efficiency.

Click on the headers below to find how to use this option.

About Resend message utility

To use <Resend message> in Outlook open a previously sent email. Then, using <Resend message> Outlook strips the email headers from the original email leaving you with a draft email and subject header which only needs a new email address adding to it. before sending or scheduling as normal.

You can copy emails that you want to save as templates this way to a folder which you could, for instance, call Templates. Also, you could use Outlook Categories to tag emails in Sent Items as templates.

Use Resend Message in Advanced Options

To use the <Resend message> option see screenshot below and follow this workflow:

Open the e-mail you want to send again
Click down the three dots towards the upper right of the editing window
Click <Advanced Options>
Click <Resend message>
Edit the e-mail as necessary
Send as normal

Use Resend Message using More Options

Often, <Resend message> is available on Outlook message editor toolbar. Click on the three dots for <More options> and select <Resend message> from the drop down menu. At time of writing, <Resend message> cannot be added to the toolbar with a button.

Summary

Outlook can be difficult to use at face value for some tasks like templates. Partly, this is because larger organizations rely on IT deparatments to automate functions like templates at a server level so that staff have ready-made presets.

Those same tools are available in smaller business that use Microsoft 365/Exchange/Outlook. In smaller businesses, staff tend to have to do more for themselves because server level presets are not usually deployed.

Using <Resend message> is the simplest of Outlook’s desktop options for creating and managing templates.

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