Tasks and Time Management in Outlook

Thank you for all of the comments and suggestions

2008-05-31T18:27:00Z

Dear readers,

Thank you for all of your suggestions and feedback to this blog. There will not be any new posts to this blog in the near future. To see more about what is going on now in Outlook, I highly recommend the Outlook Team blog, where my collegues and I post regularly.

Thanks,

Melissa

OneNote and GTD

2007-06-21T01:20:00Z

I recently was passed a blog that I thought might interest some of you about how to use OneNote as part of a Getting Things Done system.

Check it out: http://www.blog.7breaths.co.uk/2007/06/gtd-with-onenote-collected-links.html

If you are interested in how to use Outlook and OneNote together, check out Olya's Post.

-Melissa

New Outlook Team Blog

2007-06-13T22:46:00Z

The Outlook Team has just created a new blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook. Going forward, the Outlook Team blog will be the place to find out more about Outlook, beyond just tasks and time management in Outlook.

Below is a list of topics that you will see on the Outlook Team blog:

- Explanations of new features in Outlook 2007.

- Discussions of how people on the Outlook team use the product

- Tips and tricks from the Outlook product team

- Announcements about the betas

- Topical discussions

- Postings about technologies and products that are interesting in the communications space

Moving forward, I’ll be posting more on the Outlook Team blog – so look for my posts there! If there are time management related posts on the blog, I’ll will post links to the Team blog.

-Melissa

Outlook2007 Performance Update Now Available!

2007-04-18T01:25:00Z

Hey everyone, please get the latest update for Outlook 2007. It has several performance improvements and should improve the general responsiveness of Outlook when reading, moving, deleting and downloading e-mail messages for users who have large mailbox files (.pst and .ost files) stored on their computers. It also has a fix for a delegate/manager calendar related privacy issue, where delegates to a user’s calendar could potentially view calendar items marked as “private” when searching for items in the manager’s calendar.

Here are the links:

Outlook 2007 update: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C262BCFD-1E09-49B6-9003-C4C47539DF66

Outlook 2007 for Business Contact Manager patch: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b1fadb55-e4e1-4f67-a69a-3e6bf9b130f0&displaylang=en

If you download the update you may notice:

· A decrease in the amount of time it takes to copy messages from one folder to another.

· An increase in the download speed when downloading multiple or large messages from the Exchange Server.

· A reduction in the amount of time it takes to delete messages.

Microsoft also made an additional update available that addresses compatibility issues between the Outlook update and Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager. If you are using Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, you are strongly encouraged to download both the Hotfix and the patch.

For more details, see: http://blogs.msdn.com/willkennedy/

-Melissa

Interesting PI article

2007-01-23T21:46:00Z

Saw this article in the Seattle PI this morning and thought it might interest some of you:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/300740_msftinfomania23x.html

It talks about how we are all overloaded with information, and steps we can take to cope with all that we have coming at us. Have a look.

-Melissa

The Outlook Gadgets are here!!!

2006-12-05T12:27:00Z

I am excited to announce that the Outlook 2007 gadgets for the Windows Vista Sidebar have just been posted to the web! Check them out:

· Outlook Upcoming Appointments – shows you your upcoming appointments.

· Outlook Tasks – shows you your tasks and flagged mail all in one place, plus gives you an easy way to enter tasks, just like the To-Do Bar.

Now you can have all of the To-Do Bar goodness right alongside all of your other Vista gadgets.

Enjoy!

-Melissa

P.S. Since this was first posted, new versions of the gadgets have been put up on gallery.live.com (12/14/06)

Check 'em out!

Office 2007 has been Released To Manufacturing!

2006-11-18T06:06:00Z

I am happy to announce that on Friday, November 3 the 2007 Microsoft Office system was released to manufacturing.

You can read the official press release here.

Thank you to everyone that helped to make this great event happen!

YEAH OFFICE!

Don't Delete: Mark it Complete

2006-10-27T04:13:00Z

I have heard of a few instances where people love the To-Do Bar, but can't figure out how to get tasks off of it. So here is a little explanation.

Because the To-Do Bar is a collection of tasks, flagged mail and flagged contacts, when you delete a flagged mail in the To-Do Bar, you are deleting the actual mail, not just some associated task. The upside of this means that there isn’t an extra version of this task eating up your mailbox quota – there is only one item represented in multiple places (To-Do Bar, Daily Task List, and in your mail file system.) In case you did not want to delete the actual mail, we provided a PONT (point of need training dialog) to warn you:

So now you're stuck, right? NO! Mark it complete! Only active (non-complete) tasks show up in your To-Do Bar. You can mark any task complete in the following ways:

1. Click on the flag

2. Right click on the flag, and select “Mark Complete”

3. Right click on the mail itself, select “Follow Up” then “Mark Complete”

4. In the open item, click on the flag in the ribbon and select “Mark Complete”

Marking a mail complete gets it out of the To-Do Bar, but you still have a record in the Daily Task List of when you completed it. The mail is still in your file/reference system, so next time you come across the mail, you see by the check mark that you took some action on it and it is done. You can just keep it for reference. Of course, if you don’t need it for reference, then by all means, hit delete!

An alternative way to make the item disappear from your To-Do Bar, is to clear the flag. Clearing the flag removes the “taskiness” from the mail – it is as though you never flagged it or dragged it to the To-Do Bar. You can clear the flag in the following ways:

1. Right click on the flag, and select “Clear Flag”

2. Right click on the mail itself, select “Follow Up” then “Clear Flag”

3. In the open item, click on the flag in the ribbon and select “Clear Flag”

If you prefer to have a checkbox in your view instead of the flags, then you can customize your view in the following way:

1. In the To-Do Bar, click on “Arranged By:…” and select “Custom…”

2. Click on “Fields…”, and remove all but “Task Subject” and “Categories.”

3. Add “Complete” (which is a Task Field), move it to the top of the list, and then click Ok.

4. Next click on “Other Settings…”

5. Under “Other” unselect “Use compact layout…” then click Ok and then Ok again to get out of the dialog.

Viola! Checkboxes on the left side of your task view!

Bottom line: Mark it complete! Don’t delete.

Give me your best scenario

2006-10-19T00:06:00Z

Hey you! I am looking for some good scenarios around lightweight project management (hierarchical task lists, sub tasks, dependent tasks, etc – you choose.) Please help me help you by adding a comment on this blog with your best lightweight project management scenario that you feel isn’t well supported in Outlook as it is now (Outlook 2007 B2TR or earlier.) And of course, let me know which features you feel are missing. For example, if you want “sub tasks,” let me know and elaborate on what you mean.

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2006/01/13/512780.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2006/01/26/518104.aspx

Project Server Tasks in Outlook: Part 1

2006-10-10T00:16:00Z

The following is the first in a series of two posts from Jon Kaufthal, a program manager from the Project team.

- Melissa

Hi Outlook task fans--I’m excited to introduce you to Project Server’s integration with Outlook. Tasks are a big part of the Project/Project Server experience, and our integration is all about putting you in control and letting you see your Project Server tasks where you want them—which for many of you is good old (err…new!) Outlook. You can then report status back to Project Server from within Outlook.

If you haven’t worked with Project or Project Server before, here’s a quick overview: Project is a powerful tool for managing projects, and Project Server works with Project to centralize data about your projects—and tasks, issues, risks, your organization’s people and their time, and more. Project Web Access (PWA) is a Web interface to Project Server where team members can log in and see what’s assigned to them, report status back to the project manager, get reports, and more. Project is the tool for the project manager, while PWA is geared towards everyone on a project—project managers, team members, execs, and managers. Project and Project Server are a fairly structured way of managing work, but they can be incredibly powerful in helping you stay on track and use your resources efficiently. For more detail, see the Office preview site on the Enterprise Project Management Solution, Project 2007 generally, and Project Web Access 2007. Also check out Erika Ehrli’s blog post on Project Resources, including links to more Project team bloggers.

Here are a few basics about Project Server-Outlook integration:

· This feature works only with Project Server/Project Web Access, not standalone Project Standard/Pro

· It integrates with both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007

· This post discusses the Project Server 2007 Outlook integration feature, though there is a similar feature for Project Server 2003

· Though built as a COM add-in for Outlook, this feature comes “in the box” with Project Server. From the Project Web Access “My Tasks” page, you’ll see a “Set up Outlook Sync” link on the Actions menu.

OK—so once you’ve installed the add-in, you’ll see a new toolbar in Outlook:

These two buttons are the keys to understanding the Project Server add-in for Outlook. Its purpose in life is basically to sit between Project Server and Outlook, and to manage the communication/sync between the two. Note that it’s not a single “sync” action, because you may want to import fairly often but then only send updates to the project manager, say, at the end of the week. You can also schedule these actions, which basically just tells the add-in “click import/update for me every x number of hours/days.”

Assuming you have tasks assigned to you in Project Web Access, and once you’ve entered the URL, clicking Import will log you in and bring up a dialog like this:

This preview lets you know what you’re about to update into Outlook. Note that these are tasks assigned to YOU—the add-in is all about team members seeing their own tasks in Outlook, not letting a project manager see his entire team’s work—that’s what Project is for!

Click OK, wait a few seconds, and…

<Applause!>

...these tasks will appear in Outlook, right next to your existing tasks. Other than name (“Task Name – Project Name”) and category, they’ll be indistinguishable from your existing tasks.

Actually, tasks is the default, but if you prefer you can have these show up as calendar appointments in Outlook. Either way, you get all of the extra Project Server goodness, and can maintain a 2-way updating of your info. You control this and other settings from a new tab created in Outlook’s Tools | Options named “Project Web Access”.

One more note if you’re showing imported Project tasks in the Daily Task List in the Outlook calendar: you may want to consider changing the Daily Task List to sort by Start Date, so that you don’t get caught off-guard when you have a task that spans a few days/weeks.

Once your Project tasks are in Outlook, you can treat them just like regular tasks (or appointments). More on this topic (i.e. what Project tasks look like in Outlook) to come in my next blog post…

-Jon

P.S. If you’re interested in Project Server but don’t want to set up your own server, some of our partners offer hosting.

Project Server Tasks in Outlook: Part 2

2006-10-09T19:23:00Z

The following is the second in a series of two posts from Jon Kaufthal, a program manager from the Project team. Click here to see the first post.

- Melissa

For those of you new to Project and Project Server, see my first post before reading on. What follows is what tasks from Project Web Access (PWA) look like in Outlook.

When you double-click to open a Project task in Outlook, you’ll notice some differences. Here’s what a task item from Project Web Access looks like:

Some things to notice here:

· Existing “standard” Outlook task fields—like Subject, Start (start date), Finish (due date)

· Existing “advanced” Outlook task fields—like Actual work and Total work

· Project Server-specific fields—like Project name, Task hierarchy, remaining work

· The project name is set as the task’s category. You already know about the great categories improvements in Outlook 2007, so this allows you to create some powerful views by category/project in Outlook.

· The “inner tabs” to switch between task management and timesheet. Task management is for updates going to the project manager—and might be in the form of, for example, percent complete, while the timesheet is likely going to some kind of accounting/billing process, and will be in the form of hours per day. Besides task status, PWA provides a complete timesheet where you would also track things like vacation time and sick time.

Clicking on the inner “Timesheet” tab, that section changes to look like this:

In this example, you might update your percent complete, remaining work, and some timesheet values. Once you’ve updated status in Outlook, you can:

· Immediately update via the buttons on the form

· Save for later (save locally to Outlook, don’t tell Project Server just yet)

· Update this and any other changed tasks to PWA via the toolbar button

· Cancel

You’ll only connect to PWA when importing or updating, but you can make local changes and save them for later even when disconnected. Once you’ve updated back to PWA, your status flows back through the system as if you had been logged into the PWA site—it will be incorporated back into the project plan and your organization’s reports.

So if you can do this all through PWA, what’s the point of the Project Server add-in for Outlook?

· Lower overhead for you, the team member—use the tools you already use

· Give you a single view of all your work—personal tasks and Project Server-based tasks

· Management gets better reports, because they have more buy-in from team members—which leads to better data

I’ve had to gloss over some subtle points and leave out a bunch of detail to keep this high-level, but we’ll keep an eye on comments to see if there’s interest in future posts on this topic. Thanks for reading!

-Jon

Some related info:

· Project Server blogs and books

· Project Server 2007 home page

· Overview of Project Server 2003 Outlook integration

· If you’re interested in Project Server but don’t want to set up your own server, some of our partners offer hosting

Olya's latest post: Assigning Tasks from Shared OneNote Notebooks

2006-10-06T04:10:00Z

Check out Olya's latest post on Assigning Outlook tasks from OneNote shared notebooks. She details how to use OneNote as a depository for a shared task list. Cool stuff!

-Melissa

Make your To-Do Bar only show tasks

2006-09-30T01:54:00Z

For some of you, flags may have had a whole different meaning, and the fact that the To-Do Bar is cluttered with your flagged mail and flagged contacts may not be working for you. Here is a solution: filter the To-Do Bar to just show tasks!

To filter the To-Do Bar to just show tasks, click on Arranged By: in the To-Do Bar and then select "Custom…" In the dialog that appears, select "Filter…" In the next dialog, click on the "advanced" tab. Click on the "Fields" button in the middle of the dialog and choose All Mail Fields->Message Class. Create the criteria "Message Class" "Contains" "Task" and add it to the list. Click Ok, then Ok again to exit the dialog.

Viola! Now there are only tasks in your To-Do Bar.

You can do the same thing if you only want to see e-mail in the To-Do Bar by swapping the value of Task with "IPM.Note."

-Melissa

Olya's OneNote Blog

2006-09-26T20:31:00Z

For all you OneNote fans out there, Olya has just started her own OneNote Blog. Her blog will probably cover a myriad of topics, including task integration, and lots of tips and tricks; her first post is about enabling searching of OneNote content on SharePoint sites.

Beta 2 Technical Refresh is out!

2006-09-20T03:09:00Z

An update (technical refresh) for Beta 2 has been released. As this is an update, it needs to be installed over Beta 2. Files saved in the Beta 2 file format may not open once the update is installed, so save your documents in legacy formats before applying the update.

After installing, be sure to reset your To-Do Bar view and your task list views.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx

Outlook Live users can get the latest connector at
http://g.msn.com/0CR1033/3.

Outlook 2007 Beta 2 Known issues

-Melissa