How do I use "Add New Groups" in Outlook 2007?

[Liontamer]

This is an issue concerning: Contact Management.

I've tried many different approaches to trying to understand how to
familiarize myself with using Outlook 2007 Contacts. I am mostly concerned
with how to setup Folders so that I can organize my contacts accordingly.

My attempts have only lead me to frustrations. What follows are three
different approaches I've taken to solve my problem.

First Approach:
I figured out that categories can be used to help you organize your
contacts. Great. However, I would rather be able to only see the contacts
of a particular category, not all categories at the same time. If I change
my view to business cards then once again all my contacts appear in the same
window. This makes it difficult to identify which categories various
contacts belong.

So, I keep exploring by trial and error for an answer to my problem.

Second Approach:
I watched a video training produced by BrainStorm, Inc.: "Adding a contacts
folder." Great video. However, after following their directions, again I
was disappointed. Here's why: I right click my email account > I click New
Folder > I name the folder "Test Folder"; for folder contains "Contact
Items"; for where to place "Contacts". This just produces an error message:
"You cannot create folder. You cannot create subfolders in a mailbox for a
web-based account. For more information go to:
http://g.live.com/10LC12URL/create All this leads to is the home page of my
email account. And, once again, I'm lost as to what to do.

In my persuit of happiness (By the way: one great movie! Rent it, you'll
have some fun.), I try a ...

Third Approach:
Exploring Contacts within Outlook 2007, I discover a link to "Add New Group"
below everything in the navigation pane. Wonderful, says I. This could be
the answer I'm seeking. But what happens?

I navigate to Contacts within Outlook 2007. I set up some New Groups. Then
I try moving a Category to one of my New Groups. What happens? For a
moment, I'm wondering where my contacts within the category went to. I'm
thinking they went into the new group which I just set up. I click on the
new group, thinking I'm going to see the contacts I just moved there. But I
get no results. I finally found them all listed in my general Contacts. I
am confused here. What is the purpose of these New Groups? How do I use
these New Groups?

Another issue I'm experiencing is this: Why can't I add notes to a contact
form, or see a listing of emails to and from that contact, but in some
contacts I can do this? Does this have something to do with Business Contact
Manager?

In summary of this issue of Contact Management and Adding notes to a Contact
record, I just don't understand why there is not clear and concise training
available on these issues. I have not found such training online.

Thank you for your attention to this situation.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

First approach: rather than group by categories, filter by categories - if
you want to see only those in the 'friends category, use instant search's
query builder to show only that category.

Second approach: as you have discovered, live accounts are limited to one
contacts folder. It's generally a bad way to organize anyway - if you have
someone who belongs in each folder you'd need to update their contact in
each folder each time it needed updated.

Third approach: Those groups are folder groups, not contact groups. It is
mostly useless for contacts for anyone with a non-exchange server account -
more will find it handy for calendars because they have multiple calendars
in their profile. Say you have 3 kids and created a calendar for each one -
you could make a group called Kids and move the calendars to it.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Let's Really Fix Outlook 2010
http://forums.slipstick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34

 

[Liontamer]

Thank you Diane. However, I need to ponder further what you are saying here.
I will get back on this soon. Please allow notification of further replies.

First approach: rather than group by categories, filter by categories - if
you want to see only those in the 'friends category, use instant search's
query builder to show only that category.

Second approach: as you have discovered, live accounts are limited to one
contacts folder. It's generally a bad way to organize anyway - if you have
someone who belongs in each folder you'd need to update their contact in
each folder each time it needed updated.

Third approach: Those groups are folder groups, not contact groups. It is
mostly useless for contacts for anyone with a non-exchange server account -
more will find it handy for calendars because they have multiple calendars
in their profile. Say you have 3 kids and created a calendar for each one -
you could make a group called Kids and move the calendars to it.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Let's Really Fix Outlook 2010
http://forums.slipstick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34

This is an issue concerning: Contact Management.

I've tried many different approaches to trying to understand how to
familiarize myself with using Outlook 2007 Contacts. I am mostly
concerned
with how to setup Folders so that I can organize my contacts accordingly.

My attempts have only lead me to frustrations. What follows are three
different approaches I've taken to solve my problem.

First Approach:
I figured out that categories can be used to help you organize your
contacts. Great. However, I would rather be able to only see the
contacts
of a particular category, not all categories at the same time. If I
change
my view to business cards then once again all my contacts appear in the
same
window. This makes it difficult to identify which categories various
contacts belong.

So, I keep exploring by trial and error for an answer to my problem.

Second Approach:
I watched a video training produced by BrainStorm, Inc.: "Adding a
contacts
folder." Great video. However, after following their directions, again I
was disappointed. Here's why: I right click my email account > I click
New
Folder > I name the folder "Test Folder"; for folder contains "Contact
Items"; for where to place "Contacts". This just produces an error
message:
"You cannot create folder. You cannot create subfolders in a mailbox for
a
web-based account. For more information go to:
http://g.live.com/10LC12URL/create All this leads to is the home page of
my
email account. And, once again, I'm lost as to what to do.

In my persuit of happiness (By the way: one great movie! Rent it, you'll
have some fun.), I try a ...

Third Approach:
Exploring Contacts within Outlook 2007, I discover a link to "Add New
Group"
below everything in the navigation pane. Wonderful, says I. This could
be
the answer I'm seeking. But what happens?

I navigate to Contacts within Outlook 2007. I set up some New Groups.
Then
I try moving a Category to one of my New Groups. What happens? For a
moment, I'm wondering where my contacts within the category went to. I'm
thinking they went into the new group which I just set up. I click on the
new group, thinking I'm going to see the contacts I just moved there. But
I
get no results. I finally found them all listed in my general Contacts.
I
am confused here. What is the purpose of these New Groups? How do I use
these New Groups?

Another issue I'm experiencing is this: Why can't I add notes to a contact
form, or see a listing of emails to and from that contact, but in some
contacts I can do this? Does this have something to do with Business
Contact
Manager?

In summary of this issue of Contact Management and Adding notes to a
Contact
record, I just don't understand why there is not clear and concise
training
available on these issues. I have not found such training online.

Thank you for your attention to this situation.