Question about Intergrating Outlook Journal and Tasks

[William S.]

The only way I really know how to explain everything is to lay out the whole
setup:
I use journal to track all of my time. I created a category "school." Every
time I work on an assignment, I create a new jounal entry and hit the "start
timer" button. I always use the same subject names, e.g. "Torts Class Work,"
"Torts Outline," "Civ Pro Class Work," ect. I also use the exact same subject
names in my Tasks folder.

I would like to make the "actual time" categories for each Task, e.g. "Torts
Class Work," add to and aggregate my individual entries for the corresponding
subject in Journal. My tasks are named identically to the entries I make in
journal each day, and both Tasks and Journal entries are entered into the
category "school."

I do not want to change the timeline format I am using in journal. I like
the easy way I can scroll across the journal, I use the single day format,
and see how productive I was throughout the day.

Is there any way to tie the multiple journal entires, with an identical name
and category, to aggregate the amount of time I am spending on the task via
the "actual work" column in the task folder.

I am sorry if i was a little redundant; I wanted to lay out the whole
problem.

I sincerely appreciate any feedback that someone may be able to provide.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook has no built-in aggregation calculation features at all. You may be able to get a partal solution by copying and pasting from a table view to an Excel spreadsheet and doing the calculation there. Any other solution would require some custom coding in VBA, a custom Outlook form, or an add-in.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[William S.]

Outlook has no built-in aggregation calculation features at all. You may be able to get a partal solution by copying and pasting from a table view to an Excel spreadsheet and doing the calculation there. Any other solution would require some custom coding in VBA, a custom Outlook form, or an add-in.

-- Do you have any suggestions for custom VBA coding, forms generation, or a commericial or non-commercial add-in? Any suggestions to lead me in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks!
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook VBA basics:

1) Choose Tools | Macro | Security and set security to Medium.

2) Restart Outlook.

3) Press Alt + F11 to bring up the VBA environment,

4) Expand the Project Explorer at upper left.

5) Double-click the built-in ThisOutlookSession module to open it. Accept the prompt to enable macros.

6) Put all the code in ThisOutlookSession.

You can run the code from the VBA environment by pressing F5 or clicking the Run button on the toolbar. Or run it from the main Outlook window with Alt-F8. When you get an "enable macros" prompt, choose to enable.

For a couple of basic Outlook automation tutorials, see:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=220595
http://www.microsoft.com/office/previous/outlook/supreasy.asp

In Outlook VBA, don't use CreateObject("Outlook.Application") to return a reference to the Outlook.Application object. Instead, use the intrinsic Application object that VBA supports, as in this statement that creates a new mail message:

Set newMsg = Application.CreateItem(olMailItem)

For more information, including links to tutorials, code samples, and how to digitally sign your VBA project so you can run with security set to High, see:

http://www.outlookcode.com/d/vb.htm

For addins, see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[interpasha]

I have a couple of questions:
Are there any 3'rd party aggregate time calculators available?
Is Microsoft planning to incorporporate this feature into MS Outlook
and how soon ?

I was trying to use MS Outlook for tracking time, organizing short-term
stuff,
like weekly schedule and daily schedule.
It works great for daily schedules, but for weekly schedule and
tracking I really need aggregate, or per week, calculations.

I am thinking that I should use MS Project for weekly and long-term
planning.
Does MS Project have this aggregate calculation?

Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Are there any 3'rd party aggregate time calculators available?

See http://www.slipstick.com/addins/ under calendar and journal.

Is Microsoft planning to incorporporate this feature into MS Outlook
and how soon ?

Nothing like that is in Outlook 2007.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[Luc Bell]

I really only stumbled upon the Journal feature in Outlook this past week,
and I have a few questions.

It seems weak compared to the features options of other office suite
products. Is the plan to embellish it as a personal tracker, or is it going
to the scrap yard?

We have to submit weekly reports for our development tasks, and just having
Journal annotate what we are doing would automate what is now relegated to a
rushed word document on Friday afternoon, trying to remember all the bugs
fix, and analysis done m-f.

I would like to see it log 3rd party apps EASILY. Any chance?

Does it tie in with Sharepoint?

Can I avoid using those silly forms just to customize the default journal
view?

Do you recommend using the command line options for Outlook? I ran across
some that would allow for scripting, and would like you thoughts...

Drop me a line if you reply.
LucRBell at gmail.com

Thanks.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It's indeed very limited, and the next version of Outlook makes no changes in the journal behavior. There is no tie-in with Sharepoint. You might want to see if any of the add-ins listed at http://www.slipstick.com/addins/journal.htm add some of the functionality you seek.

Being able to log 3rd party applications probably would depend on necessary "hooks" being present in those applications, something Microsoft can't control.

You don't need a custom form to customize the view of a folder.

The command-line options are less useful for scripting than the rich Outlook object model.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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