Folder sort order in Outlook and Windows

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: