Restoring Contact History in BCM (XP)

[albert]

I dragged and dropped my contacts into the Business Contact Manager folder (
after crashing several times).

Unfortuntely, he extensive history which was accumulated in each contact
folder (under thet activivites tab) was not transferred to the History field
in BCM. I read other posts on the subject and cleared the cache but the
activities do not appear in the history field.

Any suggestions on how I can restore this information?

Also, I notice that I have 3 separate folders for Contacts, Calendar and
Notes although only one of each of these folders is populated with data.
Should I delete the duplicate (empty) folders?

Thank you
Albert

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

BCM History and the Outlook contact's Activities page use two different
methods to track related items. In neither case is any information stored in
the contact itself. BCM displays the information in its History folder. The
Activities page does a search on demand for all related items in your
folders.

In other words, there's nothing to restore, because the information is all
there. But you won't be able to view it in BCM unless possibly you modify
the form (following Patricia Cardoza's instructions) to display the
Activities page.

 

[Albert]

Sue, thank you for your explanation.

When you refer to "Patricia Cardoza's isntructions" do you mean the
instructions to clear cache through the manage forms option? (If so, I have
already done that and there is no history I can view for the contacts I moved
to Business Contacts. If not, please point me to the appropriate directions)

Thank you
Albert

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

She's referring to my instructions on my blog (see link below) that detail
how to customize the BCM Contact form.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza

 

[albert]

Thank you. Having reads your blog, I think I will stick with plain vanilla
(supported) version.

I assume that as I populate the business contacts/accounts, so long as I
enable "journal options" to automatically track activities(e.g., e-mail, word
documents, telephone call, meeting request, etc), those activivites will be
added to account history automatically or must I manually "add" an activity
in the "account history" for each account or business contact?

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

No, they won't. The Journal and Activities do not apply to BCM Contacts.
You'll have to do all of your activities through the BCM Account or Contact
form and click the Add button next to Business History.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza

 

[Albert]

But the "tour" in BCM states that " as you send e-mail messages and make
appointments, they are automatically added to business history." This
suggests that at least those activivites do not need to be added manually,
correct?

 

[Patricia Cardoza [Outlook MVP]]

If you have email linked (Business Tools, Link email, Auto Link) then yes,
as you send emails they are automatically linked.

If you are creating appointments, you need to create them from the Business
Contact form or you must manually link them using the BCM toolbar that
appears on top of every appointment item.

Unfortunately the tours are not 100% accurate.

--
Patricia Cardoza
Outlook MVP
Author - Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Lead Author - Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference
Author - Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003

http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza

 

[Albert]

Thank you again for your explnations and support. I very mcuh appreciate the
help provided by you and Sue.

 

[blayer]

Sue, I am trying to copy the contents of "Contacts" into "Business Contacts
in Business Contact Manager." The drag-and-drop copy works fine from folder
to folder. However, when I open the copied contact in Business Contact
Manger the history folder contains every e-mail message in my mail folder!
It is like that for each contact that was copied. It is like all of the
contacts are "linked" to every e-mail rather than just the messages
associated with that contact.

Any ideas why this is happening? Is there a way to set linking options
prior to the first copy?

Thanks in advance...

Bryan Layer

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

BCM sometimes has what's known as a "forms cache" problem that can produce
the symptoms you describe. Clearing the cache usually fixes it. Choose Tools
| Options | Other | Advanced Options | Custom Forms, then click Manage
Forms, then Clear Cache. If simply clearing the cache doesn't fix the issue,
try the other steps detailed at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;836558

The bulk of the forms cache issues in Outlook 2003 are fixed in Service Pack
1, so you should also install Office 2003 Service Pack 1 as well as BCM SP1.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers