Importing Outlook Categories to outlook 2007 from ol2003

[Richard]

Has anyone tried importing contact categories from ol2003 to 2007 beta?
I'm about to spend a day categorising all my contacts and wonder
whether I should wait until after I upgrade, or whether it is safe to
do it now.

Thanks

Richard

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Categories are automatically migrated to the new color categories in Outlook
2007 and taken from the registry and stored in the pst-file.

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


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Has anyone tried importing contact categories from ol2003 to 2007 beta?
I'm about to spend a day categorising all my contacts and wonder
whether I should wait until after I upgrade, or whether it is safe to
do it now.

Thanks

Richard

 

[Guest]

Hello Roady,

Categories are automatically migrated to the new color categories in Outlook
2007 and taken from the registry and stored in the pst-file.

Are you inferring that the categories list will now be stored with the .PST
file instead of in the registry? Which means that categories in an imported
..PST file would automatically be added to the 'Master Category List' of the
new machine? That would be great news! Or are we over-optimistic?

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

The Master Category List is still stored locally and AFAIK not in the
pst file, but the registry. However, you can easily build an MLC on any
computer based on your existing content.
If you right-click a PST in the folder list and select Properties, there
is a "Upgrade to Color Categories" button. What this button does is to
go through all your items in your PST, extract all the categories that
are assigned to those items and populates the MLC with them. This is the
automatic migration process Roady referred to, but it can be manually
started with that button at any point in time. It doesn't overwrite
existing color categories to my knowledge.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
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Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
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[Guest]

This would be fabulous, Patrick, especially if it could add the .PST file
folder's orphaned categories without deleting the existing categories.
Unfortunately, I cannot find the feature you mentioned in my version of
Outlook 2007. What version are you using? Perhaps you could give me a few
more details on finding this option. My properties dialog for the .PST
folder provides display options, folder size information, and advanced
options for changing passwords and compacting, but NOTHING for importing the
orphaned categories into the master category listing?

Thanks

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Are you running Beta 2 and not B2TR? (Help, About should say 12.0.4407
for B2TR)
MS accidentally forgot that button in B2.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Guest]

Are you running Beta 2 and not B2TR? (Help, About should say 12.0.4407

for B2TR)
MS accidentally forgot that button in B2.

No, I am running 12.0.4017.1006, so this is possibly the reason. Is B2TR
the new refresh update? Hopefully, the category feature we discussed is
included in all the various flavors of MS Office and not just the business
and enterprise versions?

Thanks

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook 2007 shifts the storage of the "master category list" from the registry to the user's default information store for Outlook.

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

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

 

[Guest]

Hello, Sue. What exactly does this mean? Does this mean that we will see
and be able to use all the categories for just this folder when working in
this folder, or does it mean that there is a virtual dynamic pool of
categories that include the categories from all the .PST folders that are
currently open?

Of course, the categories have always been preserved with the file, they
just were not recognized as part of the Master Category List on other
computers. I do know that one of the GREAT improvements is the addition of a
button on the folder 'Properties' dialog (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) that adds
all the orphaned categories into the master list (however that works now) . .
.. HALLELUJAH ! But what other effects will result from this new improvement?

Thanks

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

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Thanks Sue!

Outlook 2007 shifts the storage of the "master category list" from the registry to the user's default information store for Outlook.

--
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]]

If you use the method described to go through all the folders in each ..pst file, you'll have one list built from all the categories in use in each file. That one list is stored in the default store. It will also contain any categories you create through the Categories dialog. It is not a dynamic pool. You have to build it, using those two methods. Gathering categories from existing items in secondary stores is not required, though, of course.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply, Sue. This is really one great, long-overdue feature
and we are very happy to have it finally. At this point, I would like your
feedback on a few other related issues if I might:

FIRST, the 'Add New Category' dialog appears to be be less functional than
in prior versions of Outlook. In prior dialogs we could add 3-4 categories,
or even a long list of categories, in a flash. We simply typed each category
name and pressed the <enter> key once (or maybe twice) and then could
immediately type in the name for the next new category, etc. Unfortunately,
the new dialog is not 'persistent' and will only let us add one category at a
time before it closes. This makes it a real pain to add multiple categories.
Any thoughts?

SECOND, similar to the issue above, but regarding deletion. Is there a way
to quickly select multiple categories and delete them?

THIRD, is there a way to GROUP or SORT the default color categories, to the
top of the category list, so that they can distinguished from other custom
non-color category descriptions? Currently, the system default color
categories are strewn alphabetically through all our other categories. Does
changing the color category names, which could be used to sort them together,
have any effect on their special nature as default program markers?

Thanks
The Max

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