Outlook vs Windows Explorer Folders

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Guest

Hello.

When will users be able to view messages & documents of a related subject in
a single folder view?

I currently maintain duplicate folder structures: 1) Outlook messages in
one set of folders, and; 2) Office documents (.dos, .xls, .ppt) in an exact
duplicate set of folders in Windows Explorer. With all the advances and
product integration its hard to reason why messages and other documents can't
be stored under a single folder structure. Did I miss something along the
way?

Thanks in advance -- Dave
 
Microsoft is tackling this with search tools -- Lookout and the MSN Search
beta.
 
Dave said:
Hello.

When will users be able to view messages & documents of a related
subject in a single folder view?

I currently maintain duplicate folder structures: 1) Outlook
messages in one set of folders, and; 2) Office documents (.dos,
.xls, .ppt) in an exact duplicate set of folders in Windows
Explorer.
With
all the advances and product integration its hard to reason why
messages and other documents can't be stored under a single folder
structure. Did I miss something along the way?

Thanks in advance -- Dave
Click to expand...

Hi Dave,

We do exactly that.

All documents (xls, doc, ppt, PDF, tif, msg, ...) are kept in network
folders by client.

Outlook emails are kept as msg files (just drag the email from Outlook
to the folder in question).

If you then double click on an msg file in the network folder, outlook
will open it up and you can see / read the email.

This also means that users don't need to have large mailboxes, and all
staff can see all documents relating to a given client in one place.
Our reasoning is that a conversation could go as follows (for
example):

1) Client telephones and asks a question (documented in a filenote in
word)

2) We do some research, and send an email asking for further
clarification (outlook msg file)

3) The client replies by fax with detailed figures (received by our
server, and becomes a TIF file)

4) We the write to the client to formally advise them (letter done in
word), and send a copy by email (PDF file of the word document,
attached inside an msg file)

This is all one single 'conversation'. The fact that we used at least
four different media for conversing is irrelavent - all the documents
should be together in a single place so that someone following behind
can understand the whole story.

HTH,

Alan.
 
Sue,

Thanks for the message. I reviewed the beta announcement at ...

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/nov04/11-11searchbetalaunchpr.asp

It's interesting, but really doesn't address the challenge of filing
messages and documents in a common folder.

Isn't there any plan to expose Windows Explorer folder/directory elements
within Outlook? It seems like such an obvious deficiency -- yet I've seen
other Explorer applets (i.e. Outlook gui) with directory objects exposed.
Any thoughts?

Thanks again -- Dave
 
Isn't there any plan to expose Windows Explorer folder/directory elements
within Outlook?
Click to expand...

Versions earlier than 2003 did this. The feature was removed in 2003; I
don't recall why, but there were good reasons.

Microsoft's long-range plan is for an integrated file system. We're not
there yet.

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