Folder sort order in Outlook and Windows
Aug 10th, 2007 by DanH
Microsoft Outlook is notoriously lacking in project-management and client-relationship features. As part of my system for managing my consulting and other work, I file all correspondence (incoming and outgoing) into Outlook folders by client. I also "mirror" my Outlook folder structure, as much as possible, in the Windows file system. Each mail folder in my Outlook PST file has a matching folder under My Documents.
It’s handy to have the most important folders at the top of the list, not only to make them easy to find but to keep them in view so that I don’t forget the projects and clients they represent. One handy way to do this is to begin the file name with a special character. Some special characters are allowed in Outlook folder names but not in the names of folders or files in the Windows file system. The period can be part of a Windows folder name so long as it is not the first character. All special characters sort to the top of the list except the hyphen and single quote, which are ignored in sorting by both systems. The oddball in the bunch is the double quote, which Outlook puts between the exclamation point and the number sign, but Windows ignores.
To save others the work of figuring this out, here is a table of the special characters available directly from the English keyboard layout:
|
Character |
Outlook |
Windows |
|
! |
|
|
|
" |
|
Ignored in sorting |
|
# |
|
|
|
$ |
|
|
|
% |
|
|
|
& |
|
|
|
( |
|
|
|
) |
|
|
|
* |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
, |
|
Windows sometimes gets confused if you use in folder names (see comment). |
|
. |
|
Not allowed as first character of file or folder names |
|
/ |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
: |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
; |
|
Windows sometimes gets confused if you use in folder names (see comment). |
|
? |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
@ |
|
|
|
[ |
|
Windows sometimes gets confused if you use in folder names (see comment). |
|
/ |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
] |
|
Windows sometimes gets confused if you use in folder names (see comment). |
|
^ |
|
|
|
_ |
|
|
|
{ |
|
|
|
| |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
} |
|
|
|
+ |
|
|
|
< |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
= |
|
|
|
> |
|
Not allowed in file or folder names |
|
A-Z, 0-9 |
|
|
|
‘ |
Ignored in sorting |
Ignored in sorting |
|
- |
Ignored in sorting |
Ignored in sorting |
I’ve discovered two sets of special cases:
1. In some situations, Windows interprets a semicolon or comma in a folder name as a delimiter–in other words, it will assume that the folder name is part of a list of folder names. This can lead to dialogs (like the Open and File As dialogs) reporting that they can’t find the folder you are looking for. So probably the semicolon is a good character to omit in folder names, even though Windows permits them.
2. In addition, the characters [ and ], while they are permitted in folder and file names, sometimes get Windows confused. If a folder has one of these characters in it, the File Save dialog will sometimes complain that you shouldn’t use the characters <> ? [ ] : | or * in a file name (actually, this should say path, not name). All of these except [ and ] are generally blocked when you try to use them, though the error message suggests that there may be ways of sneaking them in anyways.
So the remaining special characters that are neither prohibited nor problematic for use in both Outlook and Windows folder names are: ! # $ % & ( ) @ ^ _ { } + =. All sort to the top of the list, in the order shown.