Please recommend best method for Outlook linking

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C

CS

Newbie designing in Access to track students and group members. Currently
keep all information in Outlook, and have limited experience in designing
custom forms to do so. Outlook is no longer complex enough, so am moving to
Access.

Contacts list currently at about 800 -- could go to 2000 (but not higher).
I considered linking the simple Outlook fields to a basic contacts table for
mass emailing, then adding tables to handle the more complex tracking (like
student class records -- this is currently tracked in Outlook custom
forms/fields) but this doesn't provide some of the basic info I would need
to synchronize back to Outlook (like "categories" -- used in targeting
mailings to certain areas).

Here's what I need -- Can someone recommend whether:
A. I start trudging up the steep learning curve to coding this by hand,
(have tried and failed at importing custom fields using some of the code
samples at Slipstick) or
B. Whether anyone has used or can recommend any of the synchronizing
programs such as Outlook Datalink (ouch, $$$!!!) or Genius Connect?

I am a determined student once I set out on the path, and could learn coding
if needed, but it's pretty much a one-shot task I need to get handled.
Willing to spend $ for software IF there are solid recommendations.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Carol
 
You cannot directly link Outlook data to Access. If you are using an
Exchange Server, you can use the Exchange Event Service to write data from
Outlook to s "synchonized" Access table, and you can open a record in
Outlook from Access. The linking field, is the 128 character GUID string
that Exchange stores with each Outlook record. The process is very slow and
complex, and breaks easily and regularly. A more robust solution is to
import all the data into Access and maintain it there. Use Outlook to email.

There are a number of utilities on my website which will help in that
endeavor:

http://www.datastrat.com/Download/EmailSenate2K.zip
http://www.datastrat.com/Download/OutlookForms2K.zip
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
Thank you, Arvin, for your swift response. I don't have Exchange Server
(small potatoes here) -- 1 machine, 1 secretary.

If I import all the data to Access and use Outlook only to email (which was
the solution I was suspecting might be best) -- a question: I currently
have a very nifty email merge program in Outlook that lets me merge html
emails using categories to target them to the correct region concerned. My
reading/searching indicates that html email merge from Access might be a
bear, and is there any way at all to link the Categories from Outlook to
Access so that I don't have to do contact data entry/update in both?

I think your utilities may take care of this -- will check them out, but
can't tell from descriptions whether they will fit the bill.

The only real info I would want to synch between Outlook/Access is very
basic contact info (name, address, email, phone) and categories. All the
rest is for reporting and targeting.

Thanks again,
Carol
 
The Email Senate demo utility uses the SendObject method to email multiple
recipients. One of the methods of sending an Access report is HTML, although
it is attached and it won't display graphics. If you amble arounf the site a
bit more, especially on the code page, you'll find other routine (but not
whole applications) which may do the job for you.

http://www.datastrat.com/Code1.html
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
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