How do I track appointments in Contacts?

[Guest]

After years of using Eudora Pro (now 6.0.x) and ACT! (6.0), I am seriously
considering "migrating" to Outlook. For the last week, I have been trying to
use Outlook's Contacts, Tasks and Calendar features (I have not jumped to
email yet). I want to ensure that I can do what I need to do with Outlook
before going all the way.

I have familiarized myself (somewhat) with the distinction between
journaling and using the Activities tab. It appears that I should be able to
use the Activities tab to track the following activities for a given Contact:
* appointments
* tasks
* email (should I start using Outlook for email)

I have also learned that if I want the Contact's name to appear in the
SUBJECT of the appointment, that I need to a) make the appointment from the
Contact's record by b) right-click-dragging the Contact to the Calendar and
selecting "Copy here with appointment as text." This last is important to me
for a couple of reasons:
1) it places the contact's name in the Subject field so I can glance at my
day or week's calendar and see WHO I have an appointment with;
2) it places their contact information (including their phone # and email
address) into the Notes field of the event so that I can easily access that
information for the appointment.

However, when making appointments this way, Activities does not appear to
track the item. If I go to the contact, click on the Activities tab, there is
no listing for an appointment made this way.

I do not want to use the "invite" or "schedule" with a contact because that
sends an email from my Outlook to them (offsite) and they receive the message
as pure gobbledy-gook *even if they are using Outlook!*

Also, when I use invite/schedule in this way, it does not place the person's
name in the Subject header of the Calendar item.

I need to be able to view a person's activities and see all appointments,
tasks, etc. related to them. AND I need to be able to see their name in the
Subject field of the calendar so that as I'm looking at my schedule, I can
easily see who my appointments are with.

Please advise... Thank you.

-- Jillaine

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Add one step to your routine. It may seem redundant, but it will produce the behavior you want. After you create the appointment by dragging the contact, at the bottom of the appointment form, add the contact's name to the Contacts box.

 

[jillaine]

Add one step to your routine. It may seem redundant, but it will produce the behavior you want. After you create the appointment by dragging the contact, at the bottom of the appointment form, add the contact's name to the Contacts box.

Thanks. That seems to do the trick.
One thing I noticed, however, is that there appears to be no
auto-complete inside of this Contacts field at the bottom of the
calendar item. I have to click on contacts, tab to the list of names,
then start typing the name to pull up the right person. That's a lot
of steps. Why isn't auto-complete working in this field? I tried by
both last name and first name. Nada.

Or am I missing something further?

Many thanks for the QUICK response.

Oh one more thing. Can you recommend a good book for really taking
advantage of the power of outlook. I read through Outlook for Dummies,
and it was too simple. I want something like "Outlook Power Users" etc.

-- Jillaine

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It doesn't autocomplete, but it will autoresolve. If the name is unique, you can just save. If it's not, click Ctrl+K to try to resolve it.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[jillaine.smith]

Thanks Sue.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what "autoresolve" means. (Like I said, I
need a good book that is more intense than Outlook for Dummies...)

-- Jillaine
p.s. I also noticed a difference in behavior between
right-click-dragging from contacts to calendar and right-click-dragging
from contacts to tasks. the latter pastes the name of the contact into
the "Contact" field of the task. Go figure...

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Autoresolve = take a name and match it up with the actual email address or, in your case, contact item. Try it!