I tried that - but "add criteria" only allows single use of any item,
so I
can't search on a combination of more than 1 categories. It also has
no
"NOT" or "CONTAINS" logic , so I can't exclude items I don't want on
the
basis of text they contain.
However, I've realised that I can create a permanent view, for printing
purposes, by using Define Views (under View / Current View) and just
select
that each time, so that the only additional work is in setting up the
advanced search each time. As that involves just selecting 2
categories
and
then excluding names including "template", it takes only about 30
seconds -
and I can probably live with that. I'd still prefer the Saved Searches
facility - I'd love to see it back in SP2!
Thank you for your help.
:
Click the Add Criteria button in contacts - it has categories. I don’t
think
Instant search works across all item types - so you'll be limited to
all
contacts or all mail with it. Views are also limited to a folder
type - a
contact view won't work on mail folders.
Yes, you can save the results from a view - I don't think you can
export
but
you can either print from the view or select all, copy and paste into
the
document, if printing doesn't work from instant search.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)
You can access this newsgroup by visiting
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Wow - thanks for the detailed reply!
I've tried expanding the search box - but it only seems to cater for
emails
- not Contacts - and doesn't include Categories.
Typically, I search on a combination of categories, within a single
Contact
folder, and eliminate records containing a word such as "template"
in
the
Full Name field. I then (and this is the really heavy bit) print
out
the
results using a pre-formatted report - which is saved along with the
search
in the .oss file. To do all of this from scratch every time takes
about
15
minutes, instead of the 30 seconds or so it took using a saved
search.
I'm
looking into whether I could search, export the selected data and
then
import
it into a spreadsheet already set-up with the print layout....
On activations - I did this via email using the free support period
(which
has now elapsed) after trying by phone was unsuccessful. I won't
bother
trying that again unless I can't resolve this problem in some way,
particularly as I can't run 2002 and 2007 together and I'd prefer to
stick
with the latest, and hence supported, version (particularly having
paid
for
it!)
:
Are you entering the keywords as 'keyword1, keyword2' ? Expanding
the
instant search box to show fields? Instant search is almost as
powerful
as
Advanced find (it doesn't do all fields) and much better than the
old
Find.
The big draw for Advanced find is that it’s a separate window, so
you
can
keep working in outlook while it searches, run multiple searches at
once,
and keep the results up for hours. (Instant search is almost
instant,
as
are
custom views.)
Are the searches across the entire mailbox or just a single folder?
Custom
views work great to apply a 'search' quickly (they use the same
filter
dialog as advanced find). Automatic formatting uses the same filter
dialog
too, if you need to apply another filter to results (ie, show all
mail
from
domain.com, directly to me in blue, where I'm cc'd in green and
everything
else is bcc'd or newsletters).
While you can apply a custom view to multiple folders, it's not as
useful
as
a search tool, since its separate folders. On the other hand, using
too
many
folders within outlook makes it much harder to find anything - its
much
faster to apply a view to one folder than it is to use advanced
find
to
search 30 folders.
No on two versions of outlook. You could do it with a VM, but that
works
best with Exchange accts (since you can't access one pst with two
outlooks -
you'd need to close one first).
As for the activations - did you try calling in to activate and
they
told
you absolutely no more? Unless the activations were very frequent,
at
most
you need to call in - my calls for excessive activations (following
reformats) were all automated.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)
You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or
point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
message
I personally don't agree that "improvements in outlook 2007
outweigh
the
loss
of OSS files". I only bought it because, having had 2 laptops in
a
row
stolen, I'd exceeded allowable activations. Instant search,
frankly,
is
useless to me, because it doesn't permit searching using a
combination
of
categories and keywords and doesn't allow me to exclude records I
don't
want.
You're right about O2003 - my mis-type - it does work with O2002
though
(but
not sure if I'll be able to reinstall that on my desktop PC
because
of
the
number of previous activations). Advanced Search still works, of
course -
it's just so annoying to have to reinput the search criteria
every
time
and I
still think it's sad that the really useful facility to save
searches
has
been arbitrarily removed. Do you know if I can have 2 versions
of
Outlook
running on the same PC? (if so, I could possibly use 2002 to open
.oss
files
when I need to run and print my saved searches). As I said
before -
not
exactly progress!!
:
Um. Unless you stick with older builds, it won't work with
Outlook
2003
either. One of the SP's blocks it for security reasons. Frankly,
the
improvements in outlook 2007 outweigh the loss of OSS files-
especially
since they are only 'lost' for non-mail folders. Plus, instant
search
makes
up for some of it - the last 10 instant searches are saved, so
they
are
easy
to select.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)
You can access this newsgroup by visiting
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point
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message
Unbelievable! I guess that's what Microsoft calls "progress".
Back
to
Outlook 2003 and £80 wasted.
:
It was removed from outlook 2007 - the open menu is for
mailbox
folders,
not
oss files. You can make search folders for mail -
unfortunately
you
can't
save searches for other item types.
--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)
You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
or
point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.
message
I've just upgraded to Outlook 2007 (I know, silly me!) and
it
won't
open,
save or even recognize Office Saved Search (.oss) files.
The
Advanced
Find
function (which is what uses these files) exists in O-2007
and
contains
the
Open and Save options in the drop-down menu (so presumably
the
functionality
is there somewhere?), but they are greyed out so they can't
be
used.
