Classification Icon Colors – How It Works

This page explains how the classification ribbon icon color is determined in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and is intended for customers and support teams troubleshooting or explaining icon behavior.

Overview

The ribbon icon color reflects how sensitive the selected classification label is — the least sensitive label always shows green, and the most sensitive always shows red, with intermediate colors for labels in between. This works automatically regardless of what your organization names its labels, because the color is based on the label's position in the severity order, not the label's text.
Note: Previously, the icon color was matched by label name (e.g. "Public", "Confidential"). If a customer's taxonomy used different label names, no match was found and a generic fallback icon was shown instead. This is fixed as of FDC Agent 5.3.1.

Color Tiers

The number of colors used depends on how many classification labels exist in the taxonomy:
Number of Labels Colors Used
2 Green, Red
3 Green, Yellow, Red
4 Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
5 or more Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red
Examples

  • 2 labels: label 1 → Green, label 2 → Red.

  • 7 labels (5-tier): labels 1–2 → Green, 3–4 → Blue, 5–6 → Yellow, 7 → Orange.

  • 10 labels (5-tier): labels 1–2 → Green, 3–4 → Blue, 5–6 → Yellow, 7–8 → Orange, 9–10 → Red.

Icon Reference

Classification Label Sensitivity Color Guide:

Special Cases

  • Unclassified document: shows a distinct "not set" icon — no severity color.

  • Multiple labels selected with "Inclusive" tag behavior: shows the default icon instead of a severity color, since no single position applies.

  • Label order matters: the taxonomy must be configured from least → most confidential (or the reverse, if using descending severity order) for the colors to display correctly. If the order is set up incorrectly, the icon colors will not reflect true severity.

Where This Applies

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook add-ins — the same underlying logic is shared across all four Office hosts.

Released in FDC Agent 5.3.1 Hotfix. Reference: DEL-2627.

For the reference video, click here.