Why can't I have different Master Categories for tasks?

[Alanfujii]

The Master Category list is common between contacts and tasks. Why would
assume that they both would use the same set of categories? Although some may
be common I would like to organize my tasks by individual projects.

----------------
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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...c67584d09&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.general

 

[The Blue Max]

Just create an additional set of categories for tasks. Perhaps they could
even have a prefix such as "Task - Personal" or "Task - Hobby" for such
tasks. All such categories would be grouped together in that they are all
prefixed with the same term. Otherwise, you will just have to select the
task-only categories out of the whole list of categories.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Who are you replying to? You didn't quote the original post and it looks
like the original item has been archived for quite some time already since
it is no longer carried by the main newsserver.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Just create an additional set of categories for tasks. Perhaps they could
even have a prefix such as "Task - Personal" or "Task - Hobby" for such
tasks. All such categories would be grouped together in that they are all
prefixed with the same term. Otherwise, you will just have to select the
task-only categories out of the whole list of categories.

 

[The Blue Max]

Interesting, Roady, because I replied to the message only a short time before
you wrote your reply, but I could see the original message. I have noted,
however, that a number of messages have recently disappeared from the server.
I wonder if they are doing some house-cleaning?

While I have you, Roady, maybe you could answer a few questions in this
regard.

FIRST, I often DO NOT include the original text when responding because it
seems inefficient, redundant, and often makes it hard for participants to
wade through a discussion thread (hard to distinguish the new material
without reading and re-reading the same old material). Yet, I also realize
the value of the quote if the original is no longer on the server or when
replying to a small portion of a post. What is the norm here in order to
facilitate overall discussion flow? You're a long-time participant aren't
you?

SECOND, why do they orphan replies from the original on the server? If the
discussion thread is of value shouldn't they retain the orginal post with the
replies? What determines how long a thread remains on the server? Some
threads seem to linger forever, while other useful threads disappear.
Furthermore, we will occasionally respond to an old thread just for the
benefit of new users that might be mislead or lack options overlooked in the
original post. Is this a waste of time?

Thanks for your insights.

 

[Gordon]

FIRST, I often DO NOT include the original text when responding because it
seems inefficient, redundant, and often makes it hard for participants to
wade through a discussion thread (hard to distinguish the new material
without reading and re-reading the same old material). Yet, I also
realize
the value of the quote if the original is no longer on the server or when
replying to a small portion of a post. What is the norm here in order to
facilitate overall discussion flow? You're a long-time participant aren't
you?

You need to understand that a great majority of the regulars here do NOT
use the horrible web interface but use a proper News reader and as this is a
high volume group, most regulars tend to show new or unread posts only, and
don't really relish having to wade through read posts in order to find out
what you are replying to.

SECOND, why do they orphan replies from the original on the server? If
the
discussion thread is of value shouldn't they retain the orginal post with
the
replies? What determines how long a thread remains on the server? Some
threads seem to linger forever, while other useful threads disappear.
Furthermore, we will occasionally respond to an old thread just for the
benefit of new users that might be mislead or lack options overlooked in
the
original post. Is this a waste of time?

If you use a proper news reader AND also quote the post you are replying to,
this doesn't happen. Don't forget that these groups are replicated over
thousands of news servers globally, not just on the MS server, and so there
ARE readers who may not get the previous posts to see, so that if you don't
quote, then they also haven't a clue what you are replying to.

HTH

 

[The Blue Max]

Thanks, Gordon, that really helps us understand some of the dilemma. There
could obviously be some improvements to this area. Given your experience,
Gordon, perhaps you could also answer a few other questions also. We prefer
to use a news reader, but sometimes revert to the website so see messages
that don't show up in our reader. This may be because we rebuilt the system
and no longer have our original posts in the reader or we may be setting up a
new reader on another machine at another location. This leads to two
questions:

FIRST, given the news reader (especially after installing on a new machine)
does not bring in earlier threads we have participated in, how do we get the
reader to find and load these earlier threads? I.e., threads we have
originated or in which we have participated.

SECOND, now we have found all the threads we have participated in during the
past, how do we claim them as 'OURS' in the news reader (Outlook Express) on
the new machine? By 'OURS' I mean we can use the Outlook Express VIEW>
CURRENT VIEW> REPLIES TO MY MESSAGES menu option to filter the messages so
that the list only shows threads we have originated or in which we have
participated. Otherwise, we end up with a ton of messages out there, but can
never filter the list in Outlook Express to see only those threads.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Gordon]

Thanks, Gordon, that really helps us understand some of the dilemma.
There
could obviously be some improvements to this area. Given your experience,
Gordon, perhaps you could also answer a few other questions also. We
prefer
to use a news reader, but sometimes revert to the website so see messages
that don't show up in our reader. This may be because we rebuilt the
system
and no longer have our original posts in the reader or we may be setting
up a
new reader on another machine at another location. This leads to two
questions:

FIRST, given the news reader (especially after installing on a new
machine)
does not bring in earlier threads we have participated in, how do we get
the
reader to find and load these earlier threads? I.e., threads we have
originated or in which we have participated.

If when you subscribe to a news group you click on "Synchronise" rather than
just clicking on the newsgroup, then you will get ALL the headers that are
on the server for that particular group. In the case of the MS news server,
the retention is, I beleive, 90 days.

SECOND, now we have found all the threads we have participated in during
the
past, how do we claim them as 'OURS' in the news reader (Outlook Express)
on
the new machine? By 'OURS' I mean we can use the Outlook Express VIEW>
CURRENT VIEW> REPLIES TO MY MESSAGES menu option to filter the messages so
that the list only shows threads we have originated or in which we have
participated. Otherwise, we end up with a ton of messages out there, but
can
never filter the list in Outlook Express to see only those threads.

There are two ways of doing that. You can either "Watch" the thread, or, the
better way, is as you have suggested, filter the view to see "Replies to My
Posts". The latter can of course be modified by either choosing All posts or
Unread posts in the same window.

HTH

 

[The Blue Max]

Thanks, Gordon, your reply was very helpful. However, there are is still one
issue I can't get clear in my head. While this is probably due to my lack of
technical understanding, you may be able to clear it up for us.

My hang-up centers around the fact we can no longer filter our messages
using 'Show Replies to my Messages', after rebuilding a system or when
accessing our messages from another location. We look at it this way . . .
when we rebuld a problem system, Outook Express is reinstalled without any of
our prior messages or replies. We then re-subscribe to the newsgroup and see
some of our old messages, but in our experience, when we enable the option to
only "Show Replies to my Messages," all the messages now disappear, including
our own original messages. We have assumed, perhaps erroneously, that this
was because the original messages no longer resided as 'Sent Messages' in the
re-installation of Outlook Express or at the new location, thus the newsgroup
had nothing to synchronize with.

I do understand, however, that this may have something to do with
synchronizing, as you suggest. Notwithstanding, the original messages no
longer reside in the new installation of Outlook Express, so how does the
newsgroup synchronize with the news reader? Is it synchronizing with the
original messages written and saved as 'sent messages,' is it synchronizing
with our account name recorded in Outlook Express setup, or with some other
data? If I knew, I could check my Outlook Express configuration settings and
be sure they matched my original configuration settings, so we could
synchronize. Furthermore, it might well answer how we 'RECLAIM' (in our own
creative terminology) our messages in a new installation. Which in turn,
would now allow us to filter out all but our own messages.

Thanks again.


***************************

 

[Gordon]

Thanks, Gordon, your reply was very helpful. However, there are is still
one
issue I can't get clear in my head. While this is probably due to my lack
of
technical understanding, you may be able to clear it up for us.

My hang-up centers around the fact we can no longer filter our messages
using 'Show Replies to my Messages', after rebuilding a system or when
accessing our messages from another location. We look at it this way . .
.
when we rebuld a problem system, Outook Express is reinstalled without any
of
our prior messages or replies. We then re-subscribe to the newsgroup and
see
some of our old messages, but in our experience, when we enable the option
to
only "Show Replies to my Messages," all the messages now disappear,
including
our own original messages. We have assumed, perhaps erroneously, that
this
was because the original messages no longer resided as 'Sent Messages' in
the
re-installation of Outlook Express or at the new location, thus the
newsgroup
had nothing to synchronize with.

I do understand, however, that this may have something to do with
synchronizing, as you suggest. Notwithstanding, the original messages no
longer reside in the new installation of Outlook Express, so how does the
newsgroup synchronize with the news reader? Is it synchronizing with the
original messages written and saved as 'sent messages,' is it
synchronizing
with our account name recorded in Outlook Express setup, or with some
other
data? If I knew, I could check my Outlook Express configuration settings
and
be sure they matched my original configuration settings, so we could
synchronize. Furthermore, it might well answer how we 'RECLAIM' (in our
own
creative terminology) our messages in a new installation. Which in turn,
would now allow us to filter out all but our own messages.

Thanks again.

To see threads that you have posted to under "Show Replies to my posts" you
must re-create your identity in the new instance of OE with the EXACT
information that you posted the old posts from.
If you set up a completely new identity in OE and subscribe to a newsgroup,
and use the synchronize function, then that identity should download all the
messages that are in existence on that group on that particular news server.
However, if you click on the newsgroup in the left-hand pane, it will ONLY
download the default 300 new headers. After that, you cannot get any headers
prior to that without going to the Tools-get next 300 headers option. For
example - if you set up your news server as msnews.microsoft.com and
subscribe to the group microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, set the download
settings to "Headers Only" and then click on "Synchronize this Account" you
SHOULD get many thousands of headers downloaded, as the retention of these
groups is 90 days. If you do NOT, then there is something wrong with your
access to the news server.

HTH

 

[The Blue Max]

Thank you, Gordon, that was extremely helpful. So let's see if we properly
understood your explanation?

When setting up the Microsoft News Server, for example, we must set up the
news account in Outlook Express so that the user information on the 'General'
tab in the account 'Properties' dialog box is the same as in the original
account. At this point, we assume that the user name and our e-mail address
are the critical elements for relinking to our original messages and replies,
right? Or does everything, on every tab, in the properties dialog for the
news server account, including the account display name, have to be the same?

Nevertheless, if we have set up the news account properly, and then
synchronize that newsgroup using the synchronize button, all the newsgroup
messages will be downloaded. Furthermore, Outlook Express will identify any
of the downloaded messages that match our account profile and reclaim them as
OUR messages. In turn, the filter to "Show Replies to my Messages" will now
recognize our original messages and replies and redisplay them as our own!

Thank you for your time, Gordon! This has helped clear up a long-standing
question we have entertained and which no one else seemed able to answer.
We'll give this issue a good go-around and be sure we can generate the
results we need. Please excuse the extended exchange, but clarity on the
issue will prevent us from revisiting the issue again and wasting someone
else's time.

Thanks !


**************************

 

[The Blue Max]

Gordon, just one addendum we forgot to include in our other reply. Will this
method also pick up any of our messages and replies posted through the
website, versus through the Outlook Express reader? Assuming, of course,
that the User Name and e-mail address used to log onto the newsgroup website
are the same as those in the newsreader account setup.

Thanks again

*********************

 

[Gordon]

Gordon, just one addendum we forgot to include in our other reply. Will
this
method also pick up any of our messages and replies posted through the
website, versus through the Outlook Express reader? Assuming, of course,
that the User Name and e-mail address used to log onto the newsgroup
website
are the same as those in the newsreader account setup.

Yes it will - the web site is just a web interface to the Usenet News group.

 

[The Blue Max]

Thanks again, Gordon, this ended up being a very productive conversation!

 

[Gordon]

Thanks again, Gordon, this ended up being a very productive conversation!

You're welcome!