2003 to 2007 newbie question

[Stephen Porter]

This is probably a dumb question, but something non-intuitive seems to be
occurring...

Why can't I open a contact and attach an appointment to that contact's
record. In 2003 it was just "Actions, New Appointment...." In 2007 all I
seem to see is the possibility of assigning a task to the contact, which is
NOT what I want to do. I've made the appointments in my Calendar, and even
inserted the contact as an "item" but that still doesn't link it to contact.

Conversely, in 2003 you can create a tast or an appointment and ad Contacts
and/or Categories to your hearts content at the bottom of the dialog.

Am I missing something here?

TIA.

Stephen Porter
LA, CA, USA

 

[Aligator]

You can rightclick a contact in the contacts list and choose "Create" -> "New
meeting request".
Or if you open the contact, choose "MEETING" on the contact ribbon.
If you start creating a meeting in your calendar, open the meeting and click
"Invite Attendees".

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

This annoys me, too. I rarely create meeting requests, but I have a lot of appointments to individuals. The available workarounds involve VBA code or a custom form or linking manually. In Outlook 2007, the Contacts box for linking items to contacts does not appear by default. You will need to turn it on -- Tools | Options | Contact Options | Show Contact Activity Information on All Forms.

If you have a retail version of Office/Outlook 2007, I suggest that you file a support incident on this issue. This is the best way to let Microsoft know that they should not have removed that command from the application. Unlimited support for Office/Outlook 2007 is free for the first 90 days after activation. See http://support.microsoft.com/gp/vista_supoffnew for more information on this support policy.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Stephen Porter]

Hi,

Thanks. Unfortunately, I am not currently able to do anything with Contacts
(see short explanation below). That's a major problem I have to solve now.

I do know that when Contacts functioned (before doing the "add Categories"
thing.... that clicking on the "Meeting" icon brought up a message asking for
an email address so Outlook could notify the contact about a meeting. Not
the functionality I need--I want to *add* a real Calendar item to my Calendar
for THAT contact.

Here's a summary of the problem I have now with Contacts:

Uh-oh....HELP. I did this (followed instructions for getting all
Categories entered) and at first it seemed OK--there were a zillion
categories added. (That's not quite what a "Master Category List" is, but I
thought I'd just delete the "one-time" categories...) Anyway, this maneuver
has done something serious to my Outlook install. I now cannot make any
changes to any contact without hanging up the system. I just ran an
experiment to double-check---opened a contact, looked at it and tried to
close it again, left for lunch and 2 hours later the little spinner is still
going. Only way to get it to stop is to use Task Manager and close it down.
Then, when I open up Outlook again it says the data file wasn't closed
correctly (no, @$#$!!) and takes another minute or two to open up again.
Email seems OK, but try anything with a Contact and you're dead in the water.
HELP, please! Do I have to reinstall Outlook? Can I get away with just
copying a backup of the .PST file on my older XP machine and starting over.
(I'm keeping both machines running until I'm certain I'm not going to run
into Vista and/or Office 2007 "gotchas".)

 

[Stephen Porter]

Hi Sue,

Thanks for the tips. I'll file a support request, or maybe even call them.
I was able to "turn" on the Contacts link, but now I have a more serious
problem which I'll summarize below. After posting a question about how to
get my "Master Category" list from 2003 to 2007 I got a response about
checking a box which would have Outlook go through all categories in the
contact file and add them. It seemed to work, but it also broke Outlook.
If you have anything on how to cure this I can get back to the linking
question ;-).

Uh-oh....HELP. I did this and at first it seemed OK--there were a zillion
categories added. (That's not quite what a "Master Category List" is, but I
thought I'd just delete the "one-time" categories...) Anyway, this maneuver
has done something serious to my Outlook install. I now cannot make any
changes to any contact without hanging up the system. I just ran an
experiment to double-check---opened a contact, looked at it and tried to
close it again, left for lunch and 2 hours later the little spinner is still
going. Only way to get it to stop is to use Task Manager and close it down.
Then, when I open up Outlook again it says the data file wasn't closed
correctly (no, @$#$!!) and takes another minute or two to open up again.
Email seems OK, but try anything with a Contact and you're dead in the water.
HELP, please! Do I have to reinstall Outlook? Can I get away with just
copying a backup of the .PST file on my older XP machine and starting over.
(I'm keeping both machines running until I'm certain I'm not going to run
into Vista and/or Office 2007 "gotchas".)
-----------------------------------------------------

In Outlook 2007, right-click on the name of your PST in the Mail Folders
list (might be labeled Personal Folders). Select Properties. Then click
on Upgrade to Color Categories. This will go through all your items in
your PST and extract the categories used on them, and build a master
category list from that.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I see that Outlook 2007 handles categories quite a bit differently than 2003.
They are color-coded for one thing. I am in the process of migrating all my
computing stuff to a new machine with Vista Ultiamte and Office 2007
Professional. I haven't had much trouble just copying my .PST file,
importing my old rules, but I'm completely at a loss as to how to get my
"Master Category List" over to this new machine. Is it possible?

TIA for any pointers.

Stephen Porter
Los Angeles, CA

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

Sue I had a look at this function too and think it will be a BIG deal star
many users. Did you log it?

--
I hope this helps you at least a little bit!

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Outlook trainer and author of Productiv_IT with Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.acorntraining.com.au
Canberra, Australia

In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
Johann von Neumann (1903 - 1957)
This annoys me, too. I rarely create meeting requests, but I have a lot of
appointments to individuals. The available workarounds involve VBA code or a
custom form or linking manually. In Outlook 2007, the Contacts box for
linking items to contacts does not appear by default. You will need to turn
it on -- Tools | Options | Contact Options | Show Contact Activity
Information on All Forms.

If you have a retail version of Office/Outlook 2007, I suggest that you file
a support incident on this issue. This is the best way to let Microsoft know
that they should not have removed that command from the application.
Unlimited support for Office/Outlook 2007 is free for the first 90 days
after activation. See http://support.microsoft.com/gp/vista_supoffnew for
more information on this support policy.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Stephen Porter]

Sue,

I've been experimenting on this and I believe I have found the solution.
If you open up a contact and then click on the new "Office Button" in the
upper-left corner, there's a right-hand pane that open up with something
similar to the old "Action" menu in 2003. One of choices is to Create: 2.
Appointment.

One thing that is still missing is to create a letter....!

 

[Bons]

GREAT Answer!!! I've been looking for WEEKS for a way to do this!!!!! I've
posted on here and asked everyone I could think of....U R a GENIUS!!! THANKS
Stephen!!!!