Increase the number of color options in the Outlook Calendar palette from 9 to 16-25, increase contrast, and allow user editing of colors.
I find that I cannot change the color of agenda items or calendar items for my email accounts in Microsoft Outlook. I use various Android apps on my tablet and phone, that allow me to show Agenda items and Calendar items. If I use gmail, I can easily select a color, whereas with Outlook accounts I cannot change the color to suit my preferences. Also provide an option or feature to set different events with different colors in Calendar as well as in Categories in Microsoft Outlook 2016.
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200 comments
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Anonymous
commented
Please revert the colors to the brighter version, or let us choose our own. Thank you!
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Marnix Wolf
commented
Where are the old colors? Everything is so bland, so washed out. Modern? No way! Modern is to leave the choice up to the user not that Microsoft thinks what's good!
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Rebecca
commented
Please bring back the old colour scheme, or at least give us the option to revert back to it! Everything I do is colour-coded and now I cannot differentiate between the colours. There was no warning - it just changed overnight with the latest upgrade. I'm really not happy and it makes Outlook much harder to use.
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Anonymous
commented
Agree. Category colour palette in the latest update of Outlook/Office is washed out. The emails and events to which I had assigned categories so they would "POP" out at me no longer pop out. Would like to have more colour options. Ability to customize my own colours would be even better.
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TJ
commented
It is weird also because I have the new updated colors (putrid greens and neons - the yellow and pink hurt my eyes) but when I view my contact's calendars they appear in colors I cannot even choose for my own calendar. I am sad!!
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Anonymous
commented
I agree the new colors are washed out and wish the development time spent on development would result in allowing us, the customer, in picking and choose our colors. At the very least, let us have the old color palette and the new color palette. I like vibrant colors, not crisp or neon colors. Someone else may love the neon. It's my opinion Outlook is lacking any significant changes for the User. I know the coding has been kept up to date, thank you, but what about simple things like giving us a choice to pick our colors. Microsoft's other product allows color options. It's 2020, let's see Outlook catch up with Word, Excel, and PowePoing in the color department.
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Stephanie Bald
commented
I need more color categories for work than offered. 25 is not enough to manage and categorize my emails when I need to search a specific email type. Can you please create more colors? Neon's, pastels, darker tones...crayola box it up!
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Anonymous
commented
We just upgraded to Office 365 and I'm finding the category colors in Calendar to be way too intense. Even though the palette appears to mimic the colors in previous versions, the new colors are now very bold/bright and harder on the eyes. Please either soften the colors or expand the number of options to include more muted options.
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GraniteStateColin
commented
Colors in Black Theme seem broken. It's like they were calculated based on or original colors to work across a dark background and not set by a person. I can't believe a human would have set the colors we have in Outlook in Dark Mode. This is not limited to the calendar -- even the "yellow" highlight in the text is now an oily, decaying, green-brown color.
This also applies to color coding calendars when showing multiple calendars in the Calendar view. There is no yellow or orange, even though those color names appear.
I think muted colors are fine and often look more professional than bright colors (like when Excel changed core palette a decade or so ago), but the colors in Dark Mode are not just muted. It's more like the palette broke for all the colors that were originally related to yellow when it was on the white background.
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DuraDuro
commented
Who screwed up Outlook category colors and why???? This is a ridiculous change! It's not an "update" - it's a "downgrade"!!!
We all HATE the new dismal putrid color palette for Outlook color categories which makes it practically impossible to use the category colors which we depend on to use our calendar efficiently. Now we have to guess which color is which because they are so pale and similar, so the new colors are useless. WE NEED THE OLD BOLD COLORS BACK!!!!!
Please make life easier rather than harder!!!!!
BOLD COLORS NEEDED NOW!!!!! Please make the putrid colors only an option.
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Anonymous
commented
Just started using Office 365, the colours in Outlook are driving me crazy, can't work properly till this is fixed back to old colour scheme
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J
commented
Hi MS Team,
PLEASE have a read of the thread below; then also read this thread:
Then - please give us some FEEDBACK - ideally how to revert to the old colours but even if you can't/don't intend to do any thing at LEAST tell us - please, please, please.
Thanks.
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Amy
commented
Not only did the color palette change, but somehow appointments and notes in my archived and older calendar got tagged with a different color for denoting another category. It's bizarre and has totally messed up my calendar tracking system. Ugh.
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Anonymous
commented
I posted a while ago on the other forum about my frustration that the colors had changed. Many other users expressed that same frustration - their comments can be found here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_outlook-mso_win10-mso_o365b/outlook-category-colors-changed/54a9d386-eb3a-4614-af88-e3c346b40506?messageId=6ce0656e-5748-4575-86db-b7c15e65dcfa
Like others here, I am not sure why a change was made in the first place, and why nobody in Microsoft is clarifying that change or sharing if/when there will be an update or reversion.
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Wyndwood
commented
Every time there is a change I do not agree with, someone will point out to me, usually from an IT perspective, why the change was made and ultimately how it would improve my experience down the road. In this case, I can find no one who can give me any kind of answer.
Think about that for a minute...no techie has any possible explanation for this "downgrade"? When was the last time no one had even the vaguest clue as to why Microsoft made a change? All it has done is worsen my Outlook experience.
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mark.a.quinn@outlook.com
commented
the calendar is now ugly. custom colours, which are available in Word etc, are a must.
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Anonymous
commented
This issue has been flagged by a significant number of CUSTOMERS in the past several months and Microsoft is entirely radio silent on the issue. WHAT THE **** IS WRONG WITH THIS COMPANY???
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Trish Roberts
commented
HATE the new colors. They are annoying and hard to differentiate. Has impacted productivity and they are not pleasing to the eye.
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Anonymous
commented
This is ridiculous! Why would microsoft change the colors of categories in Outlook? Here's an idea... if you are going to make a change, why not make a change for the BETTER..? No, instead you decide to make a change for the WORSE..! Give us a color picker, so we can create our own colors. How hard could that be???
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LA
commented
Allow users to select a color palette for category colors that best allows for differences in visual preferences. This is a productivity issue!! Once again, the colors have changed, which requires readjustment and re-categorization since some colors are too similar. Plus they are so, so dull. I hate pastels. HATE. It doesn't make sense that millions of users have to be subjected to the preferences of a few at Microsoft who think this is best. I don't care to have all my colors be uniform across apps. For those that like that, great, they should have the option to choose a default across all apps. I want to be able to to make a selection that visually makes sense to me for my calendar and email. It's 2020. If we can figure out how to land on an asteroid, I think there are individuals who can figure this one out. Much appreciated!
