Creating Views That *Exclude* Items

[David H]

I tag my tasks with categories and I'd like to create a couple of views for tasks that simply exclude a couple of those categories. Is there a simple [or for that matter complex ] way to do that?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Create a custom view and set a filter on it;
View-> Current View-> Define Views...

 

[David H]

That's a rather sparse answer Rob . I know how to create a view, my question when I create a view can I use a filter to exclude a couple of categories? I created a view using the advanced tab on the filter view, using a "doesn't contain" statement. That works....until I add more than one "doesn't contain" statement so that I can exclude more than one category. At that point the filter stops functioning, which is a problem since I need to exclude more than one category.

Thanks

 

[Roady [MVP]]

In that sense, your OP was rather sparse as well by excluding all that
information.

You either select which categories you want the view to contain or want to
exclude. In the case of the last; how should Outlook know whether to include
the newly created category or not?

You can of course pre-fix your categories and set a filter on that. Bu the
same applies; if you add a new pre-fix; you'll have to tell Outlook what you
want it to do with that; include it or exclude it. It cannot read your mind
;-)

 

[David H]

newsgroups_DELETE_ wrote on Sun, 01 February 2009 05:13

In that sense, your OP was rather sparse as well by excluding all that
information.

Ah, but that assumes I excluded it . I discovered it after I posted, and in fact had come back to post what I had discovered when I saw your post. So there! Kidding aside, I appreciate your assistance.

Quote:

You either select which categories you want the view to contain or want to exclude. In the case of the last; how should Outlook know whether to include the newly created category or not?

I am not sure I follow your reasoning and am not sure what you mean by "newly created category". Do you mean the second filter I am adding for the second category?

You can of course pre-fix your categories and set a filter on that. Bu the same applies; if you add a new pre-fix; you'll have to tell Outlook what you want it to do with that; include it or exclude it. It cannot read your mind[/quote]
Still not following you. Not asking it to read my mind. I created two simple filters:
Categories doesn't contain value 1 (this works)
Categories doesn't contain value 2 (as soon as I add this the first filter stops working and this one doesn't work either)

If I am supposed to include an OR statement that's fine but I don't see anywhere to include an OR statement. It seems to me that what I entered should simply create a view that includes every item except those with categories assigned to value 1 and value 2. Are you saying it should not, or did you think I was doing something else?

Either way, if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Ok, now I'm following you

In that case, use the SQL filtering option. The easiest to do this is to set
both your "doesn't contain" filters. Then click the SQL tab and enable the
option. Then change the AND statement to an OR statement and you should be
set.



-----

newsgroups_DELETE_ wrote on Sun, 01 February 2009 05:13

In that sense, your OP was rather sparse as well by excluding all that
information.

Ah, but that assumes I excluded it . I discovered it after I posted,
and in fact had come back to post what I had discovered when I saw your
post. So there! Kidding aside, I appreciate your assistance.

Quote:

You either select which categories you want the view to contain or want
to exclude. In the case of the last; how should Outlook know whether to
include the newly created category or not?

I am not sure I follow your reasoning and am not sure what you mean by
"newly created category". Do you mean the second filter I am adding for
the second category?

You can of course pre-fix your categories and set a filter on that. Bu the
same applies; if you add a new pre-fix; you'll have to tell Outlook what
you want it to do with that; include it or exclude it. It cannot read your
mind

Still not following you. Not asking it to read my mind. I created two
simple filters:
Categories doesn't contain value 1 (this works)
Categories doesn't contain value 2 (as soon as I add this the first filter
stops working and this one doesn't work either)

If I am supposed to include an OR statement that's fine but I don't see
anywhere to include an OR statement. It seems to me that what I entered
should simply create a view that includes every item except those with
categories assigned to value 1 and value 2. Are you saying it should not,
or did you think I was doing something else?

Either way, if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate
it.[/QUOTE]

 

[David H]

newsgroups_DELETE_ wrote on Sun, 01 February 2009 08:39

Ok, now I'm following you

In that case, use the SQL filtering option. The easiest to do this is to set both your "doesn't contain" filters. Then click the SQL tab and enable the option. Then change the AND statement to an OR statement and you should be set.

There is no and statement.

View>Current View>Define Views. I then modify the view I created, Modify View>Filter>Advanced. I then add the two "doesn't contain" statements. If I then go to the SQL tab instead of the advanced tab, the following is there automatically, from the "doesn't contain" filters I created on the advanced tab:

("urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice#Keywords" <> 'Task - Punch List' OR "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice#Keywords" <> 'Task - Future')

Whether I enable or disable the SQL page ("edit these criteria directly") makes no difference, it works with one filter set but not the two.

Any suggestions? It seems like I am close and I cannot figure out if there is something else I need to do or this is a bug/limitation of Outlook.

p.s. "Task - Punch List" and "Task - Future" shown in the statement above are the two categories I am trying to exclude from the view.