How do I make a new appointment by right-clicking a contact?

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We have the Outlook 2003 that came with Microsoft Office 2003 for small
businesses, including Business Contacts Manager. We've seen a promotional
video for the program that clearly shows a person right-clicking on a contact
in the "contacts" view and being able to select the option "schedule new
appointment with contact." We have been told before that this is a feature
of the program, but the option is absolutely nowhere that we can see!!! The
office at our practice gets a little hectic at times, so being able to just
click on a contact and schedule a new appointment for the contact without
having to constantly re-enter the same information over and over again (such
as name, telephone #, etc.) would be a great help. I've posted this in
another forum, and have received no answer. All of the "help" and
"troubleshooting" topics I've pursued in the program and in Microsoft Office
online are basically promotional advertisements for the program's features,
not actual help!!!

So can anyone help us?
 
What choices do you see on the right-click context menu?

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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
The options I get are "open," "print," "new task for contact," "new journal
entry for contact," "link," "call contact," "call using NetMeeting," "follow
up," "categories," and "delete."
 
Weird. Are these contacts in your default Contacts folder or the BCM Contacts folder? What about on the Actions menu?

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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
The actions menu doesn't display the option either, although I seem to
remember it at least showing up there on the other computer (which I think is
more up-to-date than this one, or might have a better version.) On this
computer, the contacts are in the default Contacts folder. On the other
computer (our main one), where we do all of the scheduling anyways, the
contacts are in the BCM Contacts folder. I don't ever recall seeing the
option coming up on either computer.

Ideally, the ultimate goal is to get to a point where we can highlight a
patient's name under Contact's, right-click, choose to schedule a new
appointment, and only have to enter in the date and time of the appointment.
We want to be able to do this, and then automatically have the calendar
display the contact's name in the appointment slot instead of having to
re-enter it in the subject line. This goal is just an eventuality, however;
for now, we'd like to be able to schedule an appointment with one of our
patients by clicking on their name, so we don't have to go back and forth
between the calendar and the contacts tab. Is any of this making sense? If
I'm not being clear, please just let me know and I'll do my best to
reiterate. Getting this program to behave is one of my primary assignments,
and I'm getting frustrated by the difficulty of researching this on the Web.
 
I'd suggest that you try resetting the toolbar -- View | Toolbars | CUstomize. You'll also find an option there to always show full menus.
We want to be able to do this, and then automatically have the calendar
display the contact's name in the appointment slot instead of having to
re-enter it in the subject line.
Click to expand...

Then, you're talking about a custom application or a contact manager other than BCM. No Outlook version does that out of the box.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Duly noted; I'll try resetting the toolbar, although I think that I have
already turned on the option to always view full menus while trying to find
out how to fix it myself. I won't be able to try this weekend while the
office is closed, so I suppose I'll post up the results on Monday or Tuesday.
And as far as the custom application is concerned, I would be infinitely
grateful if you could point me in the direction of an application that does
this (preferably free or very low cost, if it exists) or if you could let me
know how I could get started on making it happen myself (through a macro,
maybe? I don't know how to use them, so I don't know their capabilities).
But before I sound rude and unappreciative, thank you *so much* for your
time, your interest, and your replies! Even the knowledge that Outlook
cannot perform certain functions out of the box is helpful to me in my
search. I certainly appreciate all of your replies and advice, both past and
future.
 
You can also just grab a Contact and drag them to another functional Folder.
eg drag a Contact to the Calendar and it starts making a Meeting with them,
to Outbox sends them an email.

This works for many Contacts at once as well.

Judy Gleeson - MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
Canberra, Australia
www.acorntraining.com.au
When you post in here, always include your version, SP level, and mode (if
applicable) of Outlook - you can find this information in Help | About. Also
include the type of mail account(s) you use and any other pertinent details.
Be sure to put a concise summary of your question in the subject line, and
the full details in the body of your post.




"Magnolia Family Psychiatry"
Duly noted; I'll try resetting the toolbar, although I think that I have
already turned on the option to always view full menus while trying to find
out how to fix it myself. I won't be able to try this weekend while the
office is closed, so I suppose I'll post up the results on Monday or Tuesday.
And as far as the custom application is concerned, I would be infinitely
grateful if you could point me in the direction of an application that does
this (preferably free or very low cost, if it exists) or if you could let me
know how I could get started on making it happen myself (through a macro,
maybe? I don't know how to use them, so I don't know their capabilities).
But before I sound rude and unappreciative, thank you *so much* for your
time, your interest, and your replies! Even the knowledge that Outlook
cannot perform certain functions out of the box is helpful to me in my
search. I certainly appreciate all of your replies and advice, both past and
future.
Click to expand...
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message
 
There are dozens of contact management applications that have Outlook integration -- see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contact_management.htm

The right-click menu is easily customizable only starting in Outlook 2007.

For a code sample that shows how to get a task to show a company name of a contact, see http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=566. Your scenario would be similar.

For VBA basics, see http://www.outlookcode.com/d/vbabasics.htm

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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Maybe they don't want a meeting request. (I know I rarely do, but I link contacts often) That technique also doesn't (a) add the contact as a link not a recipient or (b) put the contact's name in the Subject.

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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
I tried following your advice, and the option still isn't showing up in the
right-click menu. Should it be showing up in Business Contacts? Or is this
something that only works under the normal Contacts view? Getting the names
to show up in the subject line is a bridge we'll cross later; for now, we
need to get this to work! Any other advice, short of calling tech support?
 
I don't have a copy of BCM installed here, so I can't say. Did you do the comparison yourself?

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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Yes, I tried it in both, and it didn't come up in either. To give you an
idea as to why this is so frustrating, let me point you toward a demo on
Microsoft's website for this product. The name of the demo is "Microsoft
Office Assistance Demo Manage patient appointments," and here's the address:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA012058321033.aspx

Click on "watch the demo," and a little promotional movie should play. At
exactly 56 or 57 seconds into the demo, it shows someone right-clicking on a
contact, and in the right-click menu it shows the option "New Appointment
with Contact." It is very frustrating to see the option in a demo
distributed by Microsoft when the option isn't appearing in the product we
bought from Microsoft. In fact, this very demo is one of the things that
persuaded us to buy the software, so I guess you can see why we're scratching
our heads over here! Once again, sorry if the post is a little long, and
thank you for all of your attention!
 
Did you also look on the Actions menu while you had a regular (not BCM) contact selected?

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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Yes ma'm, I did. There is no option for a new appointment in the Actions
menu, even when I have a regular (not BCM) contact selected. Did you have a
chance to look at that demo video? I understand if you didn't, I was just
wondering if you saw what it is I'm looking for.
 
Hey, I called Tech Support and figured out what was going on. Apparently,
the options were not coming up because we had not configured an e-mail
address with Outlook when we installed the program, since we aren't doing
e-mail through Outlook. We just set up a fake e-mail address, and it came up
just fine! Now, all we have to do is find a program that will fill in the
"subject" field of the appointment form for us. Thank you so much for your
attention and replies!
 
Thanks for the update! I learned something today, too.

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

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