Using Outlook categories to work with your data easier

[Jason Dunn]

Do you like having sub-folders for your Contacts and Calendar, but want to know how you can sync that data to your Pocket PC and still work with them easily? The Pocket PC can’t synchronize sub-folders for anything other than email, so if you want to get that information onto your Pocket PC, there’s a procedure that will help, and it revolves around using categories. <br /><br />When I first started writing this, I was convinced that with enough diligence, you could keep the data on your Pocket PC isolated from syncing to a computer and have it contain both types of data (work and home) without pushing the wrong data onto the wrong machine. I spent hours cursing ActiveSync and the Pocket PC, but wasn't able to get it working. ActiveSync doesn't allow you to select categories for synching data BEFORE the first sync, so everything on your Pocket PC will dump onto the PC, even if you don't want it to. And if you select specific categories for the sync after the fact, it won't purge the Pocket PC or Outlook of the invalid data. Someone didn't think this matter though very well. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif" /><br /><br />I was <b>stunned</b> - for nearly two years I had told people that they could keep their work and home data separate by using categories and only synching certain categories with each machine, yet I had never tried it (my home computer IS my work computer). I knew that all the right pieces were there (ActiveSync category selection), but I had no idea how <b>badly broken</b> they where. To anyone whom received my bad advice, I apologize - I evidently should try things before I suggest them to others. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif" /> This article morphed into using categories in the only way possible on the Pocket PC - to change views of your data. Enjoy! &lt;!><br /><br /><b><span>Categories Make Life Easier</span></b><br /><span>Unpublished PocketPC.com article originally written April 20th, 2002.</span><br /><br /><i>The Pocket PC supports categories, a little-known feature that will help you sort your data easier</i><br /><br /><b><span>What You Need</span></b><br />• A functioning ActiveSync connection on both your work computer and home computer<br />• An installed version of Outlook. We use Outlook XP for this tutorial, but the basic concept will work in most versions of Outlook.<br /><br /><b><span>Gotchas</span></b><br />The only “gotcha” about this process is that you need to be vigilant about assigning a category to every piece of data. If you start to get lazy about it, your data won’t be easy to work with.<br /><br /><b><span>Step 1: Merge that folder data together</span></b><br /><br />Before you can get that data onto your Pocket PC, you need to get back to using single Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Task folders. The easiest way to move the data is to select a piece of data inside the sub-folder (like a contact), press CONTROL+A to select all the data, then left-click and drag the data into your main folder. For some information, like Calendar entries, it’s easier to change the view (under the View menu, then click Current View) to a mode like “View by Category” to see everything. You should end up with all your sub-folder data in the root folders (Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes). Now it’s time to get the categories ramped up!<br /><br /><b><span>Step 2: Create appropriate categories</span></b><br /><br />You can assign categories to all Outlook data that is synchronized to your Pocket PC. This includes appointments, contacts, notes, and tasks. Journal entries are not synchronized, and email doesn’t factor in here because the Pocket PC can only synchronize email with one partnered computer – you’ll want to make sure you pick the appropriate computer the first time you do an email sync (likely your work computer).<br /><br />Before you can start assigning categories to your data entries, you’ll need to make sure you have the correct categories set up.<br /><br />1. In Outlook, click File > New > Appointment<br />2. A new appointment will open. In the bottom right-hand corner of the appointment window, you’ll see a categories button. The category field should be blank. Click the categories button.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-406-fig1.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The Categories window</i><br /><br />3. A new window will open up – it will look something like Figure 1. This is where you assign categories to your data. You’ll see a list of 20 pre-defined categories that come with Outlook. They cover most of the basics, so in most cases you simply check a box and click OK to save the category assignment. What if you want to create a category that isn’t listed? Click on Master Category List.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-406-fig2.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 2: The Master Category List</i><br /><br />4. The Master Category List will open (Figure 2). To add a new category, you type in the category name in the New Category field, and click the Add button. Once you’ve done that, click OK.<br />5. You’ll now see your custom category listed in the categories window. Select it, and click ok. You can also assign multiple categories to an appointment if you wish.<br /><br /><b><span>Step 3: Categorize your current data</span></b><br /><br />Once you have your categories ready to go, you need to assign your current data to them. The slow way of doing this is to open every item and repeat the steps outlined above. For most people, that would take hours, so here’s a faster way.<br /><br />1. Switch to the folder that you need to categorize. Let’s say it’s Contacts.<br />2. Under the View menu, click Current View > By Category<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-406-fig3.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 3: Data with no categories assigned to it</i><br /><br />3. This will give you a list of your data organized by categories. If you’ve never assigned categories to any of you information previously, you’ll likely see all your data under the “none” category (Figure 3).<br />4. Now you need to assign the information to a category. If you have a mixture of business and personal contacts, hold down the CTRL key as you click on each contact that falls in the business category – this allows you to select multiple contacts that aren’t sequential. After you’ve selected ten or twenty contacts, right click on one of the contacts and select Categories from the menu. The Categories window (Figure 1) will appear, and you can assign those contacts to the business category. I suggest you do this in batches, because after you’ve selected dozens of contacts it’s very frustrating to accidentally left click by mistake and lose your selection. Repeat the same procedure for all your personal contacts. Alternatively, you can drag and drop them into the appropriate category as long as there’s at least one contact in that category – remember that categories aren’t visible until after there’s at least one piece of data assigned to that category.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-406-fig4.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 4: Data assigned to categories</i><br /><br />5. Once you’ve completed assigning categories to your contacts, you’ll see them grouped together. You’re done assigning categories! Remember you’ll need to do this on any computer you want to sync with – and the categories need to be named the same way.<br /><br />The procedure outlined above used contacts as an example, but it will work for calendar, notes, and tasks. The basic procedure is the same for all the data types.<br /><br /><b><span>Step 4: Working with categories on your Pocket PC</span></b><br /><br />Now that you’ve done all the hard work of assigning categories to all your data, let’s look at how it works on your Pocket PC (you’ll need to Synchronize your data at this point). Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks are category-aware. Notes is not – you can view, sort, and work with categories for your Notes on the desktop, but on the Pocket PC it simply lists them all.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-406-fig5.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 5: Changing categories in Contacts</i><br /><br />The Contacts application on your Pocket PC works wonderfully with categories – you can tap the Show menu (Figure 5) to see all the categories you have available. I’ve divided mine up in several ways – the categories make it really easy to find the contact information I need, whether it’s for a client I need to call or a store I want to buy something at. You can also cycle through the Contact categories by hitting the Contacts hardware button on your Pocket PC.<br /><br /> <br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/articles/JD-406-fig6.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 6: Changing categories in Calendar</i><br /><br />Calendar works a little differently with categories. Once you’ve loaded the Calendar application, tap Tools, then Categories. This loads the category list (Figure 6) where you check off the category you want to see. This acts as a filter – you’ll only see appointments that are in the category you picked.<br /><br />Tasks work similar to the way Contacts works – tap in the upper-left, and select the category you want to look at.<br /><br /><b><span>Conclusion</span></b><br />Categories are a great way to get rid of those Outlook sub-folders, get all your important data onto your Pocket PC, and work a little faster on it. Give it a try!

[greenup]

I was unable figure out how to do categories on the PocketPC with Notes.
(DISCLAIMER: I am a brand-new PocketPC user, with less than 24 hours of experience under my belt. (fedex dropped it off yesterday))

On the PC side, you can do "properties" for notes and get categories, but it didn't seem to have that ability on the handheld. I looked deeply through the menus for such a thing, because I am a "list" person, and since I figured that most people need lists, PIMs must have them, and outlook must have them.

Although it might be a little cumbersome to do so, I figured that I could make folders or categories for each of my lists, (like "shopping" or "travel needs") and make a separate "note" for each line-item, thereby allowing activesync to be able to cope with updates on either the PC or the handheld. No Joy.

I am currently investigating "checklist" and "listpro", but am disappointed with microsoft; usually they can be counted on to at least provide a shoddy, watered down version of what I want. "Tasks" might have worked if they were a little more generic; "notes" are actually a little too generic. (no checkboxes)
-greenup

[Jason Dunn]

If you want to do categories with your Notes, you'll need HPC Notes from Phatware:

http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&platformId=2&productType=2&catalog=0&amp;sectionId=0&productId=5245

It's a GREAT app and is available in a few different versions (Lite, Standard, Professional)

[RHighley]

Life is too short to go the categories route.

Get Pocket Lookout 2.1.1 from http://lookout.vonken.com/ for US$20.00 and sync any or all Outlook sub-folders.

Short of Microsoft making the syncing of Outlook sub-folders native to the Pocket PC OS, there is probably no route even theoretically better than Pocket Lookout. There sure isn't any better existng practical solution.

[topps]

I have found in the past that the situation is worse than you describe, Jason. When I tried to set up two devices syncing with one desktop, using different categories, the devices got really screwed up and lost a whole bunch of stuff - gone from all 3! the desktop and both devices...enough of a hassle to put me off, you would have thought...but no, stubborn me persevered...and managed to trash my whole pst file. Everything gone...not a happy camper!

Mind you, this was back in the days of ActiveSync 3.0 - maybe it is better behaved now...but I don't intend to go back to find out.

Another alternative...although when I tried it ages ago, I was not that impressed... is Intellisync...but they have also gone through several revisions and refinements and I hear that it works much better now.

Finally, I believe that XTNDConnect PC, the deskop version can do something like this...I read about it a month ago...is on my "to test" list ...when I get a round TUIT!

My wife and I find that syncing two devices with one desktop is a great way to keep our schedules straight. We use Categories, as you suggested, as a way to view different items, rather than worrying about keeping them off each other's devices entirely. Is also handy in that we can check each other's items such as schedule when the need arises but exclude when we want to.

I do think that there is an increasing need for something like Exchange Lite - ie for home/personal use. Max of 3 users (or maybe 4). With real simple setup and maintenance - no sane person wants the hassle of setting up Exchange for home use. Perhaps this is what XTND PC offers...I'll have to give it a whirl.

[bortiz1]

:D Wow...I can not begin to tell you all how I have searched for the last 3 days for an answer to this question. I seem to get what you all are saying and I will post back if I am having trouble. I just found your forum tonight, and it was because I was looking for information on how my wife and I can sync our schedules for cross over things (like the kids doctors appointments) but I could keep my work appts separate from hers and vise-versa. I just ordered myself a Toshiba e310 (my wife already has a Jornada 525). This will be great. I hope you don’t mind me picking your brains in a few days.

Topps and Jason do you have any additional hints/pitfalls to be looking for when I begin to do this?

Should I start the whole process on Outlook on the computer and then synch the PPC's?

Thanks,

Brian

[Jason Dunn]

...on how my wife and I can sync our schedules for cross over things (like the kids doctors appointments) but I could keep my work appts separate from hers and vise-versa.

Better re-read my post. :D You CAN'T keep the data separate - it's an all or nothing thing where all your work data will get dumped onto your home PC, and vice versa. :oops:

[bortiz1]

Jason...

I set up separate categories
1. Mine
2.Wife
3. Family (where I would assume to put the kids stuff, our anniversary, our family birthdays etc).

So are you saying that when I sync to the home computer..all categories are there, but when she syncs to her PDA, can she can't choose to take her category and the family category only? I understand that the home computer keeps it all but you could choose what to take with you????? Am I correct? Or do I not really understand how this category thing works? I guess what I am trying to say is that as a teacher I would not want my wife to have, on her PDA, each of my daily lesson plans/appointments that are only important to me (thus my personal work category), but I do want to be able to create an appointment that we could both see if it was something like me working late or dinner for the two of us. Am I making sense?????

I was successful at categorizing our contacts first tonight (I am stopping there or now). I have my work contacts, she has her friends, and then in the third category is our family. So if all the data comes with you when you sync, does chosing a specific category after the sync allow you to browse only the ones you want and hide the other persons category? And am I correct in that when I make a note on a date for my calander, that regardless of which category I choose, we both (my wife and I) will see it???

Do you want to come over for a few beers and help me sort this out? :wink:

ok.....

Brian

PS Thanks for all the help so far, I fear I will need more. I appreciate your patience.

[Jason Dunn]

I guess what I am trying to say is that as a teacher I would not want my wife to have, on her PDA, each of my daily lesson plans/appointments that are only important to me (thus my personal work category), but I do want to be able to create an appointment that we could both see if it was something like me working late or dinner for the two of us.

That's just the problem - Outlook will dump all those appointments or contacts onto your Pocket PC whether you like it or not. ActiveSync is a trickster here - it LOOKS like you should be able to control the flow of data based on categories, but you can't. This was the crux of my problem and why I was so ticked off when it didn't work - because it really SHOULD. The pieces are there, but the people who designed it didn't really think things through. They were working from a ONE POCKET PC = ONE PC paradigm, nothing more.

It's too complex to explain - I can only suggest you give it a try and see what I'm talking about. :-(

[bortiz1]

I understand, and I did re-read your post so disregard my last edit. The only question I still have is about the appointments. If I make one, can she choose not to view my "work" appointments when she is looking at her calander?

Brian

[bleeman]

Brian,

I'm not sure I can help you with your syncing issues, but let me throw out one "trick" I highly recommend that I always use when first setting things up. In Outlook I copy all of my critical folders (Contacts, Calendar, etc.) to a separate folder and call them something like Bkp-Contacts, Bkp-Calendar etc. That way I have a backup of everything prior to starting any syncing "testing" and it also means I don't have to worry if I do something stupid like sync the wrong way and wipe out all sets of my data :D

[JvanEkris]

I found out that syncing categories works the other way around. The PDA does not want all data, the PC does. So selecting some categories to be synced with your PDA blocks the things comming from the PC to the PDA, but the PDA still stores them on your PC. I guess microsoft still sees the PDA as a PC-companion.

If you add a category "shared" and you block all other categories, you stop the non-shared items from entering your PDA. You however can not stop the PDA from storng the data on your desktop.

Jaap

[cessquill]

Maybe I'm not up to speed with my desktop version of Outlook, but...

I too would LIKE to keep data separate (so I don't have company-sensitive information on my home PC, and shopping list entries on my work), but I'm prepared to work around that. The problem I am having is that once the system copies over works appointments to my home PC the home PC gets messed up because it doesn't know the attendees to the meetings (from the company's global address list).

Is this something I can solve, since I'm holding back doing a serious 2-PC sync until that's sorted.

Gah. There's not another release of ActiveSync on the horizon, is there?!

[rlobrecht]

I did a bunch of testing with this, and concluded the same thing Jaap did - your PC wants all the data. When you choose to only sync some categories from Outlook to your PPC this works. Only those categories from Outlook will sync to your PPC. But ALL categories of data will sync from your PPC to Outlook. Example: 1 PPC 2 computers work and home. In my work Outlook I mark everything with the Business category. In my home Outlook I mark everything with the Personal category. I set activesync on my work PC to only sync Business, and in my home Outlook to only sync Personal. I first sync with my work PC. All of my Business category items sync to my PPC. Potentially I have other things in there that don't sync. This does work. I then go home. I plop my PPC in its cradle, and it starts to sync. All those Business category items get copied down to Outlook! Its just a big mess.

The way that works best for me is to sync all categories with both computers and use the views for filtering. Only look at the Business category at work, and only look at the Personal category at home. Items can be in multiple categories - and this is how I sub filter. Business and Active Projects or Business and Client. Personal and Birthday or Personal and Anniversary. It works for me.

[Pony99CA]

I'm always amazed at the things I can learn here.

I've had a problem getting duplicate events for things like birthdays and anniversaries of contacts. In the past, when I noticed duplicate events, I'd fix them by going into the month view in Outlook on my laptop and deleting the duplicate events. Unfortunately, that meant I had to scroll through 12 months of data and scan the calendar for duplicate events. It was an annoying process, and one reason I always wanted a "List" view of the calendar (the other reason being to find old events that I no longer cared about and delete them).

This thread made me open Outlook on my laptop and check the View/Current View menu, something I didn't know existed. Imagine my delight when I found View/Current View/Annual Events! It will now be much easier to find and purge these duplicate appointments.

This leads me to two questions. First, did the Current View capability exist in Outlook 97? That's what I was using until this year with my Handheld PC and my iPAQ 3650. I only switched when I got Outlook 2002 with my iPAQ 3870.

Second, does anybody know how these duplicate events get created? I'm only syncing with one computer, so I'm not getting the duplicates that syncing with two computers can create.

I'm not sure why I'd get these duplicates, but I've noticed that it appears with appointments that I have edited for some reason. For example, for birthdays where I want to send someone a card or a gift, I add a reminder two weeks before the birthday to remind me to shop for the card or gift. I also make birthdays and anniversaries private so they won't be shared if I use Outlook at work. When I noticed a duplicate event in Calendar or Outlook, one event would seem to be the edited version (two-week reminder, private), and the other event would be a generic one (15-minute reminder, not private).

I tried creating a test contact with a birthday, then going back and editing the contact, then editing the event, then editing the contact again, but I could not get a duplicate created during my test. If anybody knows what causes this, maybe I can avoid the problem. At the least, I can eliminate the duplcate when it gets created, not some time later when the birthday or anniversary rolls around.

Steve

[JvanEkris]

Well, to make a very long story very short: Outlook Desktop version creates the duplicates.

The slightly longer version: It originates from the contacts: when there is a contact with birthday/anniversary there, it will create the appropriate birthday. It will check if the birthday is already there. Unfortunatly, this check is extremely simple, and mostly concludes it isn't there already (because there is one field different). In these cases it will be created as a duplicate. Change one of the identifying fields (file as name, name fields, e-mail fields), and this proces repeats itself.

Jaap

[klinux]

We do our calendar/tasks the dumb way i.e. I start my task like 'K: Go grocery shopping' and she satrts hers like 'D: Call XYZ @ 1234567'. Not efficient btu works pretty well for us.

[cheeso]

on a related topic: I was frustrated for a long time in not being able to view Notes by Category on the Pocket PC. This is possible in outlook, and is possible on the palm (synchronizing from Outlook to Palm via DesktopToGo, for instance).

At last, here is a small tool that puts the category index onto the Pocket PC, and allows you to view Notes by Category.

freeware!

6mb msi: http://www.winisp.net/cheeso/dl/NotesCat-Setup.msi

Notes:
- Tested with Outlook XP, ActiveSync 3.5, and Windows XP
- Requires .NET Framework on PC (see windowsupdate.com)
- Requires .NET Compact Framework on PPC
- does not sync notes in subfolders
- does not do "conditional" sync of categories; all categories of notes get synched to the device


-cheeso

[greenup]

... but wasn't able to get it working. ActiveSync doesn't allow you to select categories for synching data BEFORE the first sync, so everything on your Pocket PC will dump onto the PC, even if you don't want it to.
...
Conclusion
Categories are a great way to get rid of those Outlook sub-folders, get all your important data onto your Pocket PC, and work a little faster on it. Give it a try!

I have been attacking the problem from another perpective, but I think the lessons are still applicable.

It appears to me that you can, (at least with activesync 3.5) control the movements of items, but it is so much work, I'm not sure it's worth it. First, you must go to the activesync "options|schedule" dialog, and select "Manually" This will allow you the short window of opportunity between when your two machines detect that there are items that need to be synced, and actually syncing them, where you can modify the rule for syncing.

The biggest problem with trying to control the movement of items based on categories really comes down to this: the default movement of a previously unknown category is "syncronize it". This especially means that in my case, where my wife's tasks are labeled "michele" and mine are labeled "greenup", if a new task is made on my handheld with the categories "greenup, work" (where home is a new category) When this task makes it to our desktop PC, its default sync setting would to be synced down to my wife's handheld.

If I have activesync set to "manual", and take care to examine and fix the sync settings for each item type (contacts, calendar, tasks are the important ones for us), making sure that no new categories have slipped in, I can make sure that our items remain separate.

IF I SLIP UP, though, and my wife DELETES the item (categories "greenup, work"? this doesn't belong here!) that deletion will soon/eventually propagate back to my handheld, and my item will never be seen again. What's more, once an item has traversed to the incorrect handheld, the only way to recover that I have found is to copy it (and any others that may have slipped through at the time) to a backup .pst file on the desktop computer, process the deletion (in any of the other 3 places: either handheld, or the default outlook folder) and then copy from the backup location, BEING SURE TO FOLLOW PROPER SYNC STEPS THIS TIME.

Overall, this is kinda good (that it is possible), because I can imagine that there *may* be a work task that could contain sensitive information (good thing we don't do emails; that's a whole lot more likely) that I technically should not share with my wife (not that she would care the least about what my company considers confidential). But it's also REALLY BAD, because the amount of work that is necessary to make sure it all happens correctly is unlikely to be rigorously done all the time. (basically, it's a pain, and downloading all the crud to both PDAs and managing them there is very attractive)

I'm still fiddling around with getting my work desktop munged into this mess, but it mostly works, so long as I pay close attention to everything.

Overall: I Agree; Activesync is an abomination. I'm pretty close to going out and buying one of the alternatives, but most of them seem to just be "piggyback" products. (still have the underlying ugliness)

[tregnier]

Life is too short to go the categories route.

Get Pocket Lookout 2.1.1 from http://lookout.vonken.com/ for US$20.00 and sync any or all Outlook sub-folders.

Short of Microsoft making the syncing of Outlook sub-folders native to the Pocket PC OS, there is probably no route even theoretically better than Pocket Lookout. There sure isn't any better existng practical solution.

This sounds like an ideal solution. I looked at the Pocket Lookout site and saw everything that I'd want to do. Are there any shortcomings to using this software to do what Jason is trying to do with categories? Seems like a simple solution, albeit for $20.

[redman]

Anybody have an answer for Cessquill (above) regarding the "problem I am having is that once the system copies over works appointments to my home PC the home PC gets messed up because it doesn't know the attendees to the meetings (from the company's global address list)."

I have precisely the same issue and am desperate for a solution... anybody?

Thanks!

Roy

[gghlpn]

:D I'm a new pocket pc phone user (hitachi G1000). Your article was very helpful. Thank You!