Author: Rob Woodgate / Source: How-To Geek

Outlook lets you create and customize folder views in many ways, like adding and removing columns or grouping and sorting messages. You can also apply rules to make Outlook display messages in different ways based on their properties (like the sender, subject line, or timestamp).
This is called conditional formatting. Let’s take a look at how it works.Getting Started
To get started setting up conditional formatting, head to View > View Settings.

You can also access Advanced View Settings by right-clicking the folder head and selecting the “View Settings” command.

The Advanced View Settings window lets you customize the folder view. Click the “Conditional Formatting” button.

This brings you to the Conditional Formatting window that you’ll be using to set up different rules for how messages are formatted.

The items displayed in the “Rules for this view” list are the default rules that come with an un-customized folder view. For example, you can see that “Unread messages” are displayed in bold, blue Segoe UI font with a size of 11 points.
How the Rules Work
The “rules” are the conditions that a message has to meet for Outlook to apply the formatting. In the default rules, for example, the “Unread Messages” rule is activated when a message is marked as unread. When that rule is activated, Outlook uses the bold, blue, 11-point Segoe UI font to display it.
Outlook applies rules in order from the top of the list. Rules higher up on the list take precedence over rules lower down.
How does this work in practice? Let’s say you have two rules, one at the top of the list that changes the font to green, and one lower down in the list that changes the font to red. If a message meets the conditions of both rules, the font will be changed to green because that rule is higher up on the list—the rule which sets the font to red is ignored.With the default rules, you can only change the font. You can’t delete default rules, or move the order around, or change the conditions for the rule. You can turn default rules off though, by unchecking them in the “Rules for this view” list.
How to Add a New Rule
In the Conditional Formatting window, click the “Add” button. A new rule called “Untitled” will be added to the list. Give your rule a name and then click the “Condition” button.

The Filter window lets you decide on the condition, or conditions, that the mail has to meet to be formatted.

We’re just going to use a simple example here and have it look for messages that were sent…
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