Trying to use Outlook Tasks

[Guest]

Please help me! Recently, at my job, we switched from using Lotus
Organizer, to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (SP2). I really like it,
overall, but I’m having a lot of trouble with the “Tasks†portion of it.
Under the “Current View†of “Simple List,†I typed in about 30 Tasks that I
need to get done. I didn’t specify a category then, so they all went under
the category of “none.†By right clicking on the “Categories: (none) (30
items),†and selecting “Categories,†“Master Category List,†I was able to
type in the categories that I wanted to use. When I clicked “Ok,†the
categories appeared under the Available Categories heading. I checked the
boxes in front of them, and clicked “Ok,†but now ALL of the tasks appeared
in EACH of the categories! Talk about duplication of effort! Now, if I
delete a task in one of the categories, it is deleted in all of the
categories! If I try to drag a task to a different category, it is copied
there, but when I go to delete the old one, they both get deleted! What’s
up with this? It’s frustrating!

So, I added a field of “Categories,†after the Subject, so that after I type
the subject on the “Click here to add a new Task,†I tab over to the
“Categories.†There should be a drop down list of the categories that I
selected, so that I can put the new Task into one of the existing categories,
rather than my having to type it each time. If I don’t type it exactly as I
did before, it puts the new task into a “new†category, which is really just
a misspelled existing category! Again, very frustrating! If I delete a
single task under a category, the category heading vanishes! Again,
frustrating! I want the category headings to stay displayed, so that I can
drag and drop tasks into different categories.

I’d say that this part of Outlook definitely needs some work. I also
cannot drag and drop the Category headings, to rearrange the list. If I do,
the tasks in the Category being dragged, are ADDED to the other Category!
Then, if I delete either of the duplicated Tasks, they both get deleted!!!
That’s what happened to all of the 30 tasks that I initially typed in. Now
I have to retype them. Again, very, very frustrating!

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

I will start from the beginning on how to Categorise Tasks as you seem to
have headed off and done it incorrectly so far.

First thing to do is make your own Categories. Do this by:

opening a Task (or meeting or contact) and click the Categories button in
the bottom right of screen. The Master Categories and use the Delete button
to get rid of the drivel that's there and the Add button to add your own
Categories. You have to Add 1 at a time! Type a new one, click Add. Over
and over until you have the list you need.

To use Categories when making a Task, Meeting or Contact just click the
Categories button (bottom right) and select one from the list you have made.


A couple of things to understand:

The method you described of right clicking all Tasks and setting a category
for them will set whichever Categories you tick for every Task you selected.
Not a good idea.

When you are in a Table View of Tasks you can Group By Category. The only
Category headings that appear in this grouped view are ones that have Tasks
in them. Just because you have a Category called Swimming doesn't mean it
will show in this view - until you put a Task in that Category.

I hope this helps as you sound very frustrated!

--
Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Outlook trainer and author of Productiv_IT with Outlook
www.acorntraining.com.au