Categories unstable

So, why does Outlook suck so hard.

Somehow all of my categories are a complete mess...

I have been using categories instead of contact lists b/c I can put people
into multiple categories as I add their contact info. For contact lists, it
seems I have to add the contact info, then open each of the contact lists I
would like to add them to, and then add them - Argh!

However, email people in a category proves to be a complete pain in the...
eg. figure out how to group by category, group by category, drag category
onto mail tab, ignore error message, then write email (I'm still trying to
figure out how to get them into BCC).

Anyway, categories have porven to be a complete f'up again by microsoft.
Somehow, most people are not in the categories I originally placed them in,
I'm only in one of the eight categories I have created. I did move
categories all the way to the right and off the screen b/c I was dumping
people from a category when I was trying to click on the category next to
their name to open the category - seems logical, or that I'd at least get a
'are you want to delete Joe from this category?'

I think I sorted by category or something and everyone was placed into one
(or a couple times two?? categories), don't know - but half the people in my
contacts are no longer in any category and the rest are only in one or two.
Looks like I'll have to start over with contact lists and try to determine
who should be on which list or maybe I'll go back to using my personal
computer (Mac) which actually works.

Russ
Tue Jun 17 17:16:02 PDT 2008

Interesting rant. If you want help (and I suspect you don't) provide clear
steps that anyone else could use to reproduce your problem. You've provided
no meaningful information.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Sean" <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C1735839-FD77-49A8-88AB-DE0A006B0597@microsoft.com...
> So, why does Outlook suck so hard.
>
> Somehow all of my categories are a complete mess...
>
> I have been using categories instead of contact lists b/c I can put people
> into multiple categories as I add their contact info. For contact lists,
> it
> seems I have to add the contact info, then open each of the contact lists
> I
> would like to add them to, and then add them - Argh!
>
> However, email people in a category proves to be a complete pain in the...
> eg. figure out how to group by category, group by category, drag category
> onto mail tab, ignore error message, then write email (I'm still trying to
> figure out how to get them into BCC).
>
> Anyway, categories have porven to be a complete f'up again by microsoft.
> Somehow, most people are not in the categories I originally placed them
> in,
> I'm only in one of the eight categories I have created. I did move
> categories all the way to the right and off the screen b/c I was dumping
> people from a category when I was trying to click on the category next to
> their name to open the category - seems logical, or that I'd at least get
> a
> 'are you want to delete Joe from this category?'
>
> I think I sorted by category or something and everyone was placed into one
> (or a couple times two?? categories), don't know - but half the people in
> my
> contacts are no longer in any category and the rest are only in one or
> two.
> Looks like I'll have to start over with contact lists and try to determine
> who should be on which list or maybe I'll go back to using my personal
> computer (Mac) which actually works.

Sean
Tue Jun 17 19:25:00 PDT 2008

Thanks Russ,

What's the solution - how do I set up a list of folks to email that works
and is stable.

I want to be able to add someone to multiple contact lists/categories when I
add their contact info, and I don't want people to easily fall out of these
groups - without a 'do you want to remove Joe from this group'. I do not
think Outlook 2007 is capable of this.

I don't think I want to use categories anymore - see multiple problems
below. Are contact lists any better?

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

> Interesting rant. If you want help (and I suspect you don't) provide clear
> steps that anyone else could use to reproduce your problem. You've provided
> no meaningful information.
> --
> Russ Valentine
> [MVP-Outlook]
> "Sean" <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C1735839-FD77-49A8-88AB-DE0A006B0597@microsoft.com...
> > So, why does Outlook suck so hard.
> >
> > Somehow all of my categories are a complete mess...
> >
> > I have been using categories instead of contact lists b/c I can put people
> > into multiple categories as I add their contact info. For contact lists,
> > it
> > seems I have to add the contact info, then open each of the contact lists
> > I
> > would like to add them to, and then add them - Argh!
> >
> > However, email people in a category proves to be a complete pain in the...
> > eg. figure out how to group by category, group by category, drag category
> > onto mail tab, ignore error message, then write email (I'm still trying to
> > figure out how to get them into BCC).
> >
> > Anyway, categories have porven to be a complete f'up again by microsoft.
> > Somehow, most people are not in the categories I originally placed them
> > in,
> > I'm only in one of the eight categories I have created. I did move
> > categories all the way to the right and off the screen b/c I was dumping
> > people from a category when I was trying to click on the category next to
> > their name to open the category - seems logical, or that I'd at least get
> > a
> > 'are you want to delete Joe from this category?'
> >
> > I think I sorted by category or something and everyone was placed into one
> > (or a couple times two?? categories), don't know - but half the people in
> > my
> > contacts are no longer in any category and the rest are only in one or
> > two.
> > Looks like I'll have to start over with contact lists and try to determine
> > who should be on which list or maybe I'll go back to using my personal
> > computer (Mac) which actually works.
>

Russ
Wed Jun 18 02:43:10 PDT 2008

Not sure what you mean by contact lists since Outlook uses no such term.
Categories are the most stable and reliable way to group Contacts. No one
else has the problems you are attempting to describe, but your description
is too unclear to see what your problem is. Here are the instructions for
using Categories in lieu of distribution lists:
http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2003/20030730.htm

Your other options for grouping Contacts are distribution lists (which are
not robust or reliable) and separate Contact subfolders. You can compare
grouping methods here:
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/oloabcat.htm
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Sean" <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A407B3B9-7EA5-45FA-8BFA-4FEE70A99492@microsoft.com...
> Thanks Russ,
>
> What's the solution - how do I set up a list of folks to email that works
> and is stable.
>
> I want to be able to add someone to multiple contact lists/categories when
> I
> add their contact info, and I don't want people to easily fall out of
> these
> groups - without a 'do you want to remove Joe from this group'. I do not
> think Outlook 2007 is capable of this.
>
> I don't think I want to use categories anymore - see multiple problems
> below. Are contact lists any better?
>
> "Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:
>
>> Interesting rant. If you want help (and I suspect you don't) provide
>> clear
>> steps that anyone else could use to reproduce your problem. You've
>> provided
>> no meaningful information.
>> --
>> Russ Valentine
>> [MVP-Outlook]
>> "Sean" <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:C1735839-FD77-49A8-88AB-DE0A006B0597@microsoft.com...
>> > So, why does Outlook suck so hard.
>> >
>> > Somehow all of my categories are a complete mess...
>> >
>> > I have been using categories instead of contact lists b/c I can put
>> > people
>> > into multiple categories as I add their contact info. For contact
>> > lists,
>> > it
>> > seems I have to add the contact info, then open each of the contact
>> > lists
>> > I
>> > would like to add them to, and then add them - Argh!
>> >
>> > However, email people in a category proves to be a complete pain in
>> > the...
>> > eg. figure out how to group by category, group by category, drag
>> > category
>> > onto mail tab, ignore error message, then write email (I'm still trying
>> > to
>> > figure out how to get them into BCC).
>> >
>> > Anyway, categories have porven to be a complete f'up again by
>> > microsoft.
>> > Somehow, most people are not in the categories I originally placed them
>> > in,
>> > I'm only in one of the eight categories I have created. I did move
>> > categories all the way to the right and off the screen b/c I was
>> > dumping
>> > people from a category when I was trying to click on the category next
>> > to
>> > their name to open the category - seems logical, or that I'd at least
>> > get
>> > a
>> > 'are you want to delete Joe from this category?'
>> >
>> > I think I sorted by category or something and everyone was placed into
>> > one
>> > (or a couple times two?? categories), don't know - but half the people
>> > in
>> > my
>> > contacts are no longer in any category and the rest are only in one or
>> > two.
>> > Looks like I'll have to start over with contact lists and try to
>> > determine
>> > who should be on which list or maybe I'll go back to using my personal
>> > computer (Mac) which actually works.
>>

Brian
Wed Jun 18 06:07:58 PDT 2008

Sean <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> I want to be able to add someone to multiple contact lists/categories
> when I add their contact info, and I don't want people to easily fall
> out of these groups - without a 'do you want to remove Joe from this
> group'. I do not think Outlook 2007 is capable of this.

I've never seen this happen outside of a synchronization context; i.e., you
sync your contacts with a PDA or another Outlook.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

Sean
Wed Jun 18 09:19:02 PDT 2008

Again, my problem is most folks in my contacts were in a category, and many
were in multiple categories. Currently, about half the people in my contacts
are not in any category, most of the rest are only in one category, a few are
still in two categories, and no one is in more than two - I was in every
category (~8), and I am now in only one. How did this happen? How do I
prevent this from happening again? It seems I was somehow dumping people in
bulk from categories, including myself, with no warning - 'do you want to
remove So&So from this category'.



"Brian Tillman" wrote:

> Sean <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > I want to be able to add someone to multiple contact lists/categories
> > when I add their contact info, and I don't want people to easily fall
> > out of these groups - without a 'do you want to remove Joe from this
> > group'. I do not think Outlook 2007 is capable of this.
>
> I've never seen this happen outside of a synchronization context; i.e., you
> sync your contacts with a PDA or another Outlook.
> --
> Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]
>
>

Brian
Wed Jun 18 12:23:31 PDT 2008

Sean <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Again, my problem is most folks in my contacts were in a category,
> and many were in multiple categories. Currently, about half the
> people in my contacts are not in any category, most of the rest are
> only in one category, a few are still in two categories, and no one
> is in more than two - I was in every category (~8), and I am now in
> only one. How did this happen? How do I prevent this from happening
> again? It seems I was somehow dumping people in bulk from categories,
> including myself, with no warning - 'do you want to remove So&So from
> this category'.

As said already, I've never seen this happen outside of a sync situation, so
I can't tell you how it happened or how to prevent it without knowing
explicit details of your environment that you haven't given. Even then it
might not be possible to deduce the cause because we can't see what you're
doing.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

Judy
Wed Jun 18 22:51:51 PDT 2008

I offer a possible cause as it's a quirk in 2007. If you click a Contacts
when in any table view, you need to avoid clicking in the Category column as
the Category changes due to the quick click function. It drove me nuts when
I first got 2007 as older versions didn't care where you clicked.

Brian's right though - we don't know what you are doing that's causing the
Contacts to change and lose their Categories as we can't see you.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook
Trainer and Consultant www.pragmatix.com.au
Outlook 2003 user? Read "7 settings all Outlook 2003 users should change"
on my website.

.
"Brian Tillman" <tillman1952@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%23sJjDmX0IHA.4004@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Sean <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>> Again, my problem is most folks in my contacts were in a category,
>> and many were in multiple categories. Currently, about half the
>> people in my contacts are not in any category, most of the rest are
>> only in one category, a few are still in two categories, and no one
>> is in more than two - I was in every category (~8), and I am now in
>> only one. How did this happen? How do I prevent this from happening
>> again? It seems I was somehow dumping people in bulk from categories,
>> including myself, with no warning - 'do you want to remove So&So from
>> this category'.
>
> As said already, I've never seen this happen outside of a sync situation,
> so I can't tell you how it happened or how to prevent it without knowing
> explicit details of your environment that you haven't given. Even then it
> might not be possible to deduce the cause because we can't see what you're
> doing.
> --
> Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

Michael
Wed Jun 18 22:57:45 PDT 2008



How do you assign a category to a contact?

--
Best regards
Michael Bauer - MVP Outlook

: VBOffice Reporter for Data Analysis & Reporting
: Outlook Categories? Category Manager Is Your Tool:
: <http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?pub=6&lang=en>


Am Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:19:02 -0700 schrieb Sean:

> Again, my problem is most folks in my contacts were in a category, and
many
> were in multiple categories. Currently, about half the people in my
contacts
> are not in any category, most of the rest are only in one category, a few
are
> still in two categories, and no one is in more than two - I was in every
> category (~8), and I am now in only one. How did this happen? How do I
> prevent this from happening again? It seems I was somehow dumping people
in
> bulk from categories, including myself, with no warning - 'do you want to
> remove So&So from this category'.
>
>
>
> "Brian Tillman" wrote:
>
>> Sean <Sean@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I want to be able to add someone to multiple contact lists/categories
>>> when I add their contact info, and I don't want people to easily fall
>>> out of these groups - without a 'do you want to remove Joe from this
>>> group'. I do not think Outlook 2007 is capable of this.
>>
>> I've never seen this happen outside of a synchronization context; i.e.,
you
>> sync your contacts with a PDA or another Outlook.
>> --
>> Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]
>>
>>