scottb13 wrote:

When I schedule an event I'd like to only identify the Category and
have Outlook automatically apply the Label and color code on the
calendar. So... with the Calendar displayed in Day/Week/Month, I
chose:
View--- Current View --- Customize Current View --- Automatic
Formatting I then added rules to set the "Name" to Business and
"Label" to Business with Label color of blue for the "Conditions" of
Advanced - Field of "Categories" contains Contractors and also
criteria of "Categories" containing Competitors or Planning.

Worked for me, too. The rule forces the label to "Business" when I set the
Category to Business.

When I click Ok, it seems to work and the appropriate events are
color-coded, but after doing a few other things in Outlook, the
colors have disappeared and the Automatic Formatting rules/criteria
have disappeared as well.

What should I be doing differently?

Depends on what you're doing. You say "after doing a few other things" but
you never elucidate what those other things are. We can't tell you what to
avoid if we don't know what you're doing.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]