Recent Posts

I have only a short question regarding Category Actions. I want to assign a category to new contacts which are exported from another tool in several Contact Folders. These exported contacts have no categories when they arrive in the folder.

I can assign to add a category to a contact with a category action, but what has to be in the field Categories, if the Categories is EMPTY?  If I just leave the field Empty, the whole Category Action disappears.

What is the correct description for Empty as a category?

Hello Ken,

Thanks for your feedback.  Although I have no current plans to add other search engines, it would be very easy for me to do so.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide a generic "custom" search engine option as you suggested.  The reason is, not only does the user have to define the query commands, but the user would also have to define the search engine's text input window where the query commands are entered.  In order for CP to work with Taglocity and Lookeen, CP writes the stored query string directly to the search engine's text input box.  This approach is necessary because third party add-ins do not expose their object model for use by other add-ins.

However, so long as the search engine has a query text input box, and so long as CP can write to this text input box using standard windows API commands, then it is very simple to add the search engine as an option in Categorize Plus.  There is a separate module in CP that holds the query string translations for each search engine, and there is another module that holds the algorithms to write to the search engines input box.  Therefore, adding another search engine should only take a day or so.

Therefore, is there a specific search engine that wish me to investigate?  I cannot promise to add the capability anytime soon, since I am currently investigating options for improving the integration of CP in Outlook 2010, but I will add your request to my list of new features.

This topic has been moved to Share an Idea.

http://veranosoft.com/forum/index.php?topic=8.0

Do you have any plans to allow users to "customize" a search engine other than Lookeen or Taglocity?  Categorize Plus is a great tool and would be even better if it could be customized to search with X1, Google Desktop etc.  I realize you can not cover every tool... but a custom search option could then allow the user to enter the search engine's query commands so the Search menu could launch other search engines.

PS: Great tool... I am sold on it.

Ken

[Categorize Plus Help Topics]

Hello,

First of all, thank you for your kind words regarding Categorize Plus.  I am glad that you like the program so far. 

Regarding your question, the contact menu items to which you refer are one of four different types of menu items used in Categorize Plus.  Contact menu items are more accurately called Email Address menu items.  This is because the text stored in the criteria field of Email Address menu items is used to find Outlook items that contain a specific email address.  This is done by searching the "To", "From", "CC" or "BCC" address fields in Outlook items for names or addresses that match the text stored in the menu item's criteria field.

Also, since Email Address menu items are not used to categorize Outlook items, they only appear in the Filter and Search drop down menus and do not appear in the Categorize menu.  The main purpose of Email Address menu items is to allow the user to filter and search Outlook emails based on the email address contained in Outlook items, without having to first categorize each item with a Category Tag that is associated with each Contact.  This actually saves a step, since most Outlook items already contain the contact's name, you don't need to first categorize the items with the contacts name to find the item in Outlook.  For more information regarding the use of the different types of menu items in Categorize Plus, the please refer to the follow help topics.

Categorize Plus Help Topics
Menu Items:  http://www.veranosoft.com/reference/scr/html/Menu%20Types.htm
Email Address Criteria Field:  http://www.veranosoft.com/reference/scr/html/Email%20Address.htm
Changing Menu Types:  http://www.veranosoft.com/reference/scr/html/Add%20Menu%20Type.htm

I am really liking categories plus!  I understand i can apply categories to the contacts i already have in outlook.  But how is this function in the menu builder intended to be used?

my first thought was that categorize plus would sync with my existing contacts so i could in effect use my contacts as a category tag to apply to a task or appointment.  But it doesn't seem to work that way. I can't see that categorize plus synced with my existing contacts.  i'd like to hook them to tasks, but how? 

thanks for the great add-in!

[Outlook Mail Merge using Categories]

Hello Frank,

Actually you do not need to purchase CP to accomplish what you are seeking.  The free version of CP will work just fine.  The free version includes a dockable category editor that can be used to quickly assign categories to Outlook items.  After downloading the trial version, you can activate the free version using the free activation code listed below.

Free activation code:  0000-0000-0000-0000-0000

Outlook Mail Merge using Categories
To learn how to use Outlook categories with Outlook Mail Merge, then I recommend visiting the link to the MSDN Blog that I have listed below.  Also, when reading this blog, please pay special attention to the tip under step 1 that explains how to use categories to select contacts in Outlook.  Basically, after you have assigned categories to your contacts using CP, you can then group your contacts by category in your Outlook view.  Once grouped, then all you need to do is to select the category header to automatically select all of the contacts below that category.  If you want, you can also purchase the Lite version of CP that allows you to quickly filter by category, which is a little easier, but that is not required in order to use categories with mail merge.  Please ask if you have further questions or if you would like further explanation.  

MSDN Blog for Mail Merge:
http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2008/09/23/mail-merge-how-to-send-a-personalized-e-mail-to-many-people-at-once.aspx

Outlook Distribution Lists using Categories
As an aside, you can also use categories to create distribution lists from your contacts.  You can compose a new message or meeting request to all members of the category-run distribution list simply by following the procedure outlined below.  

Copied from:
http://email.about.com/od/outlooktips/qt/et_category_dis.htm

• Go to Contacts in Outlook.
• Select View | Current View | By Category from the menu.
• Click the desired list category's heading.
• Select Actions | Create | New Message to Contact or Actions | Create | New Meeting Request to Contact from the menu.
• Click OK if Outlook notifies you that your action will apply to all items in the group.
• Click in the To... field.
• Outlook has put all address in the To: field. For distribution list messages, it is usually better to have all addressees in the Bcc: field to avoid revealing addresses. If appropriate, you can leave the addresses in the To: field, of course, or move them to the Cc: field.
• For contacts with multiple email addresses, Outlook has inserted each. It is best to delete the unneeded addresses.
• Press Ctrl-A.
• Press Ctrl-X.
• Make sure the Bcc... field is visible.
• Click in the Bcc... field.
• Press Ctrl-V.
• Type your email address in the To... field.
• Continue composing the message or meeting request.

Can someone help me decide if Cat.Plus is going to be helpful enough to purchase?  My main need is to create categories for my contacts so that I can view and select and differentiate my contacts.  Because my Outlook is what drives my Blackberry contacts, I have both business and personal contacts in the same database.  I was hoping Cat. Plus could help me, especially when I'm exporting for mail merge.  Thanks. 

This past weekend I finally found time to launch this community forum.  I have spent countless hours conversing with users using conventional email.  Now I look forward to conversing with users via this forum.

Over the coming days I will anonymously add to the forum highlights from previous email correspondence with users.  This will allow the broader community to benefit from the information.

Let me know how you like it.

Jon Zimmerman
VeranoSoft

Hi Jon,

Yes it answers all my questions, I’ll use your recommendations and I’ll read the criteria help pages.
I had not realized commas were illegal characters in category names and no pressure on the sorting suggestion, you’re call.

BTW that was one fast reply,

thank you.