Configure Outlook calendar with internal vs. external colors/categories?
October 18, 2017 2:27 PM Subscribe
I color code my Outlook calendar using categories to keep track of multiple projects I manage at work. I have a fully established personal color-coding system, but the admins have just mandated that we switch over to their system. Is there anyway to configure it so that I preserve my color-coded categories in my view, but everyone else sees a different set of colors when they look at my calendar?
For example, I have calendar appointments for projects A, B, and C today. On my calendar, A is coded red, B is coded yellow, C is coded green, which allows me to tell at a glance which project I'm working on, as well as look back and see how much time I spent on each project each week. But administrative staff coordinating multiple calendars want to be able to see that A is a phone call (blue), B is an internal meeting (yellow), and C is an out-of-office meeting (red). They have assigned this alternate set of color-coded categories that clashes with my personal system. I know I can double-code each appointment to show "phone call" as the main color and "project A" as the secondary color in the corner, but this is significantly more cumbersome for me. Here's an example: Tuesday is what my calendar looks like now, Wednesday is what it would look like with the new system.
Also, I'm managing like 10 projects so the limited palate of colors means I have to use light yellow and dark yellow, light red and dark red, etc. which is also a pain. Oh, and I'm on Outlook 2010, if that matters.
Please tell me if there is a way to have a personal view of my calendar where only I can see my color-coded categories, while my colleagues can see my calendar with a separate set of color-coding for phone call, internal meeting, etc. I already condition my calendar so that the words "project A" will automatically code it red, so it'd be great if I could write "project A phone call" and it will automatically show up as red on my calendar and blue to others.
For example, I have calendar appointments for projects A, B, and C today. On my calendar, A is coded red, B is coded yellow, C is coded green, which allows me to tell at a glance which project I'm working on, as well as look back and see how much time I spent on each project each week. But administrative staff coordinating multiple calendars want to be able to see that A is a phone call (blue), B is an internal meeting (yellow), and C is an out-of-office meeting (red). They have assigned this alternate set of color-coded categories that clashes with my personal system. I know I can double-code each appointment to show "phone call" as the main color and "project A" as the secondary color in the corner, but this is significantly more cumbersome for me. Here's an example: Tuesday is what my calendar looks like now, Wednesday is what it would look like with the new system.
Also, I'm managing like 10 projects so the limited palate of colors means I have to use light yellow and dark yellow, light red and dark red, etc. which is also a pain. Oh, and I'm on Outlook 2010, if that matters.
Please tell me if there is a way to have a personal view of my calendar where only I can see my color-coded categories, while my colleagues can see my calendar with a separate set of color-coding for phone call, internal meeting, etc. I already condition my calendar so that the words "project A" will automatically code it red, so it'd be great if I could write "project A phone call" and it will automatically show up as red on my calendar and blue to others.
I work in a largeish department (of a very large organization) with multiple high-level people and their associated admin assistants, plus all of us other folks, and I'm kind of side-eyeing/boggling at the idea of everybody color-coding their appointments uniformly to meet some central standard.
If this is a new thing, that everyone must get in line with how the admins have decreed it will be done from now on, it might be worth pushing back on. "People already have workflows and processes that work for them, and this will interfere with that in ways that take up time and therefore money. What information do the admins really need? Is the difference between 'on a phone call' and 'in a meeting' actually relevant, or is what they need to know 'available/busy but could reschedule/no really, BUSY'?"
POV: used to be an admin managing an executive's schedule but with reasonable expectations about other people's schedules.
posted by Lexica at 8:14 PM on October 18, 2017 [4 favorites]
If this is a new thing, that everyone must get in line with how the admins have decreed it will be done from now on, it might be worth pushing back on. "People already have workflows and processes that work for them, and this will interfere with that in ways that take up time and therefore money. What information do the admins really need? Is the difference between 'on a phone call' and 'in a meeting' actually relevant, or is what they need to know 'available/busy but could reschedule/no really, BUSY'?"
POV: used to be an admin managing an executive's schedule but with reasonable expectations about other people's schedules.
posted by Lexica at 8:14 PM on October 18, 2017 [4 favorites]
Well, it's been a while since I did it and I don't have Outlook here at home, but you can have more than one personal calendar. I don't know how automatic it is to maintain duplicate appointments on both calendars, but you should be able to copy appointments by hand, and it might not be too bad to take a minute to do that in the morning if the color code rules are enforced.
There is some information here on creating multiple calendars about half way down the page.
posted by lemonade at 9:21 PM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
There is some information here on creating multiple calendars about half way down the page.
posted by lemonade at 9:21 PM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
The good news is that if you use conditional formatting on appointments then, when you view someone else's calendar, your own conditional formatting is applied to their appointments.
So if you can come up with a standard method to flag the different projects and convey whether it's a call, meeting or you being out of office then you can run some conditional rules to colour them one way and your admin staff can run a different set of rules to colour them a different way.
I suspect the easiest way for you to do this would be to create categories for each of your projects and use the location field to differentiate between call and meeting. Out of office can use the existing status field.
Now all you need to do is define your rules to colour on the categories and their rules to colour on the location field and out of office field.
posted by mr_silver at 12:51 AM on October 19, 2017
So if you can come up with a standard method to flag the different projects and convey whether it's a call, meeting or you being out of office then you can run some conditional rules to colour them one way and your admin staff can run a different set of rules to colour them a different way.
I suspect the easiest way for you to do this would be to create categories for each of your projects and use the location field to differentiate between call and meeting. Out of office can use the existing status field.
Now all you need to do is define your rules to colour on the categories and their rules to colour on the location field and out of office field.
posted by mr_silver at 12:51 AM on October 19, 2017
What if you change the concept and use the View function on your calendar? Or more likely: convince everyone in your office to use the View instead of the Category.
I've been playing with this and I can create several different views on my calendar and change the color of the same meeting to a different color on each view by using the Conditional formatting option to search for a specific word in the title of the meeting. When I open someone else's calendar who has a meeting with the same word, my color is applied to their calendar.
But if I use the Category field on a new appointment, it uses the color that I assign it and my View does not override that color.
If the whole office used Views, you could all agree to put the key words in the appt that would trigger the colors and everyone could set their own View to see the colors that are important to them. So you could put Project A, phone call. And you would each see it in a different color.
posted by CathyG at 11:39 AM on October 19, 2017
I've been playing with this and I can create several different views on my calendar and change the color of the same meeting to a different color on each view by using the Conditional formatting option to search for a specific word in the title of the meeting. When I open someone else's calendar who has a meeting with the same word, my color is applied to their calendar.
But if I use the Category field on a new appointment, it uses the color that I assign it and my View does not override that color.
If the whole office used Views, you could all agree to put the key words in the appt that would trigger the colors and everyone could set their own View to see the colors that are important to them. So you could put Project A, phone call. And you would each see it in a different color.
posted by CathyG at 11:39 AM on October 19, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks for your answers, everyone.
limeonaire and lemonade: both good suggestions for workarounds, but they both create an extra step that will prove more cumbersome than the double-category system. If i can't automate it or do it in Outlook, it's not worth it.
Lexica: I agree with you 100%, but apparently the issue is that "this was supposed to be the system you learned during onboarding" but has fallen off in the past 3 years or so. All of us with our own systems are <3 years of seniority, whereas those with >3 years do use this system and just discovered that we don't.
mr_silver and CathyG: this is a good idea, but it will require all the admins (and the higher ups who are supporting this standardization) to switch from categories to conditional views, and I suspect they will just say that it's our job to accommodate them, not the other way around.
The ideal answer would be a custom view where conditional formatting can override categories, but I don't think that's possible in Outlook 2010. Is it possible to create a second calendar that autopopulates from my primary calendar and I can just format that one the way I like as a workaround? Having some appointments just in overlay is not very practical since I often have to access my calendar on my phone and need all my meetings in one place.
posted by crazy with stars at 1:42 PM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
limeonaire and lemonade: both good suggestions for workarounds, but they both create an extra step that will prove more cumbersome than the double-category system. If i can't automate it or do it in Outlook, it's not worth it.
Lexica: I agree with you 100%, but apparently the issue is that "this was supposed to be the system you learned during onboarding" but has fallen off in the past 3 years or so. All of us with our own systems are <3 years of seniority, whereas those with >3 years do use this system and just discovered that we don't.
mr_silver and CathyG: this is a good idea, but it will require all the admins (and the higher ups who are supporting this standardization) to switch from categories to conditional views, and I suspect they will just say that it's our job to accommodate them, not the other way around.
The ideal answer would be a custom view where conditional formatting can override categories, but I don't think that's possible in Outlook 2010. Is it possible to create a second calendar that autopopulates from my primary calendar and I can just format that one the way I like as a workaround? Having some appointments just in overlay is not very practical since I often have to access my calendar on my phone and need all my meetings in one place.
posted by crazy with stars at 1:42 PM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Wait what? Since when is it the managers' job to accommodate the admins? The correct answer to this is "fuck off, it's my calendar, a tool for my work." If your company is prioritizing the convenience of the overhead people over that of the production people, they're seriously mis-calibrated.
That said, I use Outlook 2010, and I only assign color categories to stuff in my calendar on my calendar, i.e., not when I send a meeting request. After it's sent and scheduled, I click it and assign the category. As far as I know that doesn't show up for anyone else, but I could be wrong.
posted by ctmf at 10:29 PM on October 19, 2017
That said, I use Outlook 2010, and I only assign color categories to stuff in my calendar on my calendar, i.e., not when I send a meeting request. After it's sent and scheduled, I click it and assign the category. As far as I know that doesn't show up for anyone else, but I could be wrong.
posted by ctmf at 10:29 PM on October 19, 2017
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posted by limeonaire at 3:17 PM on October 18, 2017