I too have evolved over time using cats. I just went in to see how many I have and its over 80! So I guess I'm asking, seeing, who my have the most cats.
I come here to neither flame nor praise. But rather for something unexpected.
Ed, you have converted me.
It was actually your example from the "simple" article about the dentist/neighbor (or something). I went back to my unruly list of hundreds of business and personal contacts in my Palm m515 and decided it was time to make use of the Categories feature. Then I realized that you are right. I have contacts who are customers, suppliers, AND friends. And I see no way to assign multiple categories to a contact even with my new version of Agendus.
So, my Dell Axim has been ordered. Since I am a Mac user and free from the tyranny of Outlook, I will have to make sure PocketMac can sync everything correctly. Then I will give it an honest try.
I started being a categories evangelist with messages several years ago because I wanted to be able to file emails under more than one topic. They work great for contacts too. The only way to go.
Partially agree with Ed. I used category for contacts. But I do realize that category has its own limitations. Category is more or less logically like a single-level folder structure with mirror items on each "folder" if an item belongs to more than one cat. When I do multiple level of project management, in some cases, I do need multiple level of folder structure which cat. cannot provide. Say, I have a big, long-term project proj1, which consists of sub-projects, proj11, proj12, proj13 and so on. If you want to quickly find all the contacts, tasks related to those sub *or even sub-sub) projects, you have to create a lot more cat. And it will be a nightmare to filter through such a huge list of cat to find the info related to a specific sub project.
So I think category and folders are both needed and Microsft should support both features in ActiveSync.
I distinctly remember you covering this not only here but at daBuzz waaaay back. Coming from the Helio and Palm, you have no choice but catagories.....so to most converts this would seem the logical (if not only)way to go. The real (bonus) power comes (as you clearly instuct) from sharing members in catagories wich makes it so much more useful.
This is a good item for an article Ed. When I got my Dell, I started looking for your previous threads on it, but it was faster to just hash it out myself, but it is nice to have it in one place. I've seen reams of stuff on hacks and miniscule details of Palm's PIM's, nice to see someone as neurotic about PPC's
Partially agree with Ed. I used category for contacts. But I do realize that category has its own limitations. Category is more or less logically like a single-level folder structure with mirror items on each "folder" if an item belongs to more than one cat. When I do multiple level of project management, in some cases, I do need multiple level of folder structure which cat. cannot provide. Say, I have a big, long-term project proj1, which consists of sub-projects, proj11, proj12, proj13 and so on. If you want to quickly find all the contacts, tasks related to those sub *or even sub-sub) projects, you have to create a lot more cat. And it will be a nightmare to filter through such a huge list of cat to find the info related to a specific sub project.
So I think category and folders are both needed and Microsft should support both features in ActiveSync.
Alex,
I'm starting to implement "GEtting Things Done" using Outlook and PocketPC. One idea is to have Projects as Contacts, then assign all it's tasks and sub-porjects to that Contact. The Contact will then keep as history of all it's activities.
I prefer folder in the desktop edition because when I write an email, and select the recipient from the entire list, I can filter the different folder from the combobox in the right-up bottom of the "Chose recipient" window.
If I use the categories I can't use to filter in the "Chose recipient" window :cry: .
Flaviano[/img]
Don't use the To: button. Just type in some of their last or first name. If I were in your contacts, you could type "hans" and then tab down to the message and start. Outlook will fill it out for you or ask if you wanted Hansberry or Hanson.
You can do multiple too. If you type in hans;smi;jone;willi it would espand to Hansberry, Ed; Smith, Jeff; Jones, Mark; Williamson, Alice.
I never ever use the To: button unless I am not sure who I am sending it to and want to browse my names - and then having them in one folder makes that easier.
I too have subfolders for now. Sometimes I need to send e-mail to everyone in a subfolder, and having to manually type the names of 50 or so contacts is out of the question - even partial names.
It might be possible to still use categories in this case if you assign all the members of a particular category also to a group. Then you could e-mail the group...
Too bad Microsoft didn't implement "Mail to category" somewhere.
I too have subfolders for now. Sometimes I need to send e-mail to everyone in a subfolder, and having to manually type the names of 50 or so contacts is out of the question - even partial names.
It might be possible to still use categories in this case if you assign all the members of a particular category also to a group. Then you could e-mail the group...
Too bad Microsoft didn't implement "Mail to category" somewhere.
Ahhh... but that is what Distribution Lists in Outlook are for.
Of course, Dist lists don't sync to the Pocket PC, but then neither do your sub-folders. At least with the category/dist list combo, your contacts are on the Pocket PC and you have powerful category filtering on the desktop and Pocket PC.
Shame Microsoft couldn't follow their own best practices (as usual) and enable Outlook Notes categories to be sync'ed to the Pocket PC too :-(
John
Yeah, I think the notes system in general is half the job done.
Agreed. The very first piece of software I bought for my PocketPC is HPC Notes Std Edition - it syncs your notes from Outlook and maintains categories and other info as well. Much more powerful than the standard notes handling.
Then I realized that you are right. I have contacts who are customers, suppliers, AND friends. And I see no way to assign multiple categories to a contact even with my new version of Agendus.
So, my Dell Axim has been ordered.
Wow! Ed, kudos for converting a diehard Palm user.
Seriously: does anyone know if Palm has multiple-categories-per-record slated for OS 6? This is one of those critical must-have features for me ever since I switched to the Pocket PC. I don't know how I managed with single categorization on Palms for years.
Conversion
Linear Mode
LinkBacks (?)
