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March 31, 2006
Project views in Outlook
Sometimes it can be useful to see everything related to a project in one view. For example, one of my biggest projects lately has been completing the Entourage whitepaper. I've had quite a few moving parts going at one time (meetings, tasks, waiting for's etc.) If you use a keyword when creating any entries related to that project, the Outlook Find feature is a great tool for bringing everything back together in one view. Here's how to do that:
1. Go to Outlook Tasks (Ctrl+4)
2. Launch Find (Alt+i)
3. Enter a keyword to search on.
4. Click on Search In to select advanced search options. Click on Choose Folders.
5. Check off Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Notes.
6. Check off Search subfolders.
7. Click OK
8. Click Find Now
Outlook will start chugging away finding entries on that keyword, looking for the keyword in the subject or body of entries. You could even print this view (Ctrl+P).
Generally, I still prefer to stay in the by context/category view of Tasks. But occasionally, it does help to see my actions by project. And of course, you could always get the GTD Add-in software which links all of your projects to actions together.
If you are a Lotus Notes user, the All Documents view in mail is the best way I've found to do this.
Hope this helps!
Posted by Kelly at March 31, 2006 02:54 PM
Comments
Kelstar!!! Just recommended DA to some colleagues and saw you were part of that very slick looking team. Hope all is well with you - love, jennifer K (from actioneer days)
Posted by: Jennifer at March 31, 2006 05:47 PM
Good suggestion. Using the menu sequence View | Auto Preview is also helpful to see the first X words of each of these entries.
Posted by: D. C. at April 1, 2006 06:12 AM
Great tip Kelly. To make this search even more useful, you can save the query as a Search Folder in Outlook 2003 from the file menu in the Advanced Search dialog. As new items that match the criteria you have selected arrive in e-mail or in items you create locally, they'll be automatically added to the Search Folder contents.
Search Folders do not duplicate the items, they merely point to them. You can delete individual items from a Search Folder but if you delete the folder itself, all you delete is the search query.
Posted by: Marc Orchant at April 3, 2006 09:33 AM
