Color unusable with Auto Formatting in customizing view

[*Vanguard*]

I try to customize the view to use Automatic Formatting to add rules for
coloring messages within a folder based on their category. According to the
KB article at http://snipurl.com/4g8i, I can have 30 filter rules defined (5
are already pre-defined). I would add a rule to color a message that was
assigned to a particular category. I'd see it get colored in the view. I'd
add a few more filter rules to add color and after something like 3 or 4
more then coloring disappeared. If I managed to get one filter rule defined
to add color, copying the current settings for a view to a new named filter
rule and using that rule would result in no color. That was in an attempt
to follow the KB article at http://snipurl.com/4g8k (which is for filter
rules in the Tasks folder but I figured it might also apply to my Inbox,
Junk, and Deleted Items folder).

I noticed that if I add columns and rearrange them before defining any
filter rules to add color that even the first filter rule would show no
color when applied. So I decided to start from scratch with the views and
filter rules by running "outlook.exe /cleanviews". This wipes out all
current view settings on each folder back to their defaults. Unfortunately
it also wipes out any user-defined views so I had start from scratch to
define them instead of just seeing if I could apply them. Nope, the same
above problems would crop up. Coloring used to work great when I was used
Outlook 2002 under Windows 2000. I moved to Windows XP (using a fresh
install of it) about a month ago. Everything was a fresh install and I
finally got around to defining the filter rules to add coloring.

I've already tried running scanpst.exe against my .pst file. It reported
some minor inconsistencies and repaired it. My .pst file is only 10 MB in
size. I then renamed my original copy and slid in the repaired copy. Nope,
repairing it didn't help, either. Still had the same problems getting color
to show up after defining a filter rule or it would disappear soon
thereafter.

When running Outlook 2002 under Windows XP, has anyone else got coloring to
work (for more than a couple added filter rules in Automatic Formatting)
when customizing their view? And got it to stick?

 

[*Vanguard*]

"*Vanguard*" said in
Okay, looks like I've narrowed it down a bit. I start Outlook 2002 with the
/cleanviews parameter so I start with all the default setup in the views. I
can then add color by defining filter rules under Automatic Formatting.
When I switch to another folder and then back, the color is still there.
However, if I add any columns in the view and move to a different folder and
switch back then color is gone. If I start Outlook with the /cleanviews
parameter again and add the columns first, I never get any color after
defining the filter rules.

Are rule filters (to add color and/or font) mutually exclusive from adding
columns?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Best bet is to make the changes through the Define Views dialog, which
ensures that they're stored as named views.