Outlook 2007: Assign Shortcut Keys for Categorizing your Mail and Task Items
Contributed by Rob Rogers 
Tagged: Microsoft Outlook By giving each category a shortcut key, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to categorize an inbox full of email as well as a lengthy list of tasks. To assign shortcut keys to your categories, follow these steps:
1. Click Actions, mouseover Categorize, and select All Categories.
2. Click the category that you will assign a shortcut key.
3. Use the Shortcut Key dropdown to select a shortcut key from the list.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each category that requires a shortcut key.
5. Click OK.
Now when you wish to assign a category to an item, simply select the item and use the preassigned shortcut key for the desired category.
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Jerry McManus said on December 27, 2008
That’s fine if you only have 12 categories. I want a shortcut to bring up the categories window. Best thing I’ve found so far is to write a script in Autokeys. Wish there were something more integral to Outlook to do that with. I realizing I’m only saving the steps on the menu of Action | Categorize | All Categories but with a hundred messages a day those keystrokes add up. Any better solutions?
Steven Barden said on July 4, 2010
I just found that by going into Opetions I can assign the Catagories mini icon next to the Save, Forward and others. Then when I hit Alt, the Catagories mini-icon has (in my placement on the Tasks item when i open a tasks item for example) a ‘9′. Understand that I DO NOT mean using the ribion, that can be hidden for this info. But you can add more mini icons to the same place as the save ‘disc’ looking icon. I think it buried in Advanced, but you can put the mini icon ‘out’ on to the opened item, and make it a ‘post-Alt-press’ key. I hope this helps others too (Steven . Barden at I N E T D E V dot C O M)
H Sheth said on November 17, 2010
how can i change the shortcut key for the reply button from ctrl+R to just R .. is there a way to change those default assigned shortcut keys?