Newsgroups: marking a thread to "watch"

R

R. Barre

When I post messages on a newsgroup, I'd like to be able to just click on
that newsgroup and quickly see if there are any replies to any of these
messages.

Is there some way to flag my posting so that any replies are automatically
flagged as well? That way, I could just sort by flag and see replies to all
my postings.
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

When I post messages on a newsgroup, I'd like to be able to just click on
that newsgroup and quickly see if there are any replies to any of these
messages.

Is there some way to flag my posting so that any replies are automatically
flagged as well? That way, I could just sort by flag and see replies to all
my postings.
Click to expand...

No. What I suggest you do, is this:

1. In the Address Book, give yourself "Personal" category, or some other
category that will be unique to yourself, give to no one else.

2. In Preferences/Address Book, check "Automatically match message
categories to senders' categories."

3. In the news group, choose to Arrange by Subject, (or a Custom Arrangement
that Arranges groups by Subject, sort groups by Sent and within groups by
Sent, if you prefer).

4. Optionally, View/Unread Only, to weed out previously read messages.*


Now, when you go to the news group, scroll quickly to find threads headed by
messages in your own Personal category color. Those are your questions. If
there are any "Re: " messages just below it in the same group, those are
answers to your questions. If not, no one has answered yet. If so, click on
them to see the answers.

* If you choose to view Unread Only, make sure to mark your own questions as
Unread (cmd-shift-T) if you happen to click on them by mistake, otherwise
they'll disappear from view the next time you return to the newsgroup and
you won't find the thread marked Personal.

** Keep your subjects a reasonable length (under 72 characters, to be
precise). When subjects are longer than 76 characters (which they would be
in "Re: " replies to a 72-character subject) Entourage inadvertently adds a
space at that point so replies won't group with the original.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
M

Mickey Stevens

No. What I suggest you do, is this:

1. In the Address Book, give yourself "Personal" category, or some other
category that will be unique to yourself, give to no one else.

2. In Preferences/Address Book, check "Automatically match message
categories to senders' categories."

3. In the news group, choose to Arrange by Subject, (or a Custom Arrangement
that Arranges groups by Subject, sort groups by Sent and within groups by
Sent, if you prefer).

4. Optionally, View/Unread Only, to weed out previously read messages.*


Now, when you go to the news group, scroll quickly to find threads headed by
messages in your own Personal category color. Those are your questions. If
there are any "Re: " messages just below it in the same group, those are
answers to your questions. If not, no one has answered yet. If so, click on
them to see the answers.
Click to expand...

Another option is to use a Custom View to show all messages in a newsgroup
that are in reply to one of your messages. First, open the newsgroup (start
with the Entourage one). Then, go to File > New > Custom View. Create a
Custom View that looks like this:

NAME Responses in Entourage Newsgroup
ITEM TYPES Messages
LOCATION This Folder microsoft.public.mac.office.entourgae
CRITERIA Match if any criteria are met
From Contains [email protected]
Specific Header References Contains %[email protected]

Change [email protected] to the address you use in the newsgroups. You can repeat
this process to create additional Views for other newsgroups. Then, if you
want to see the messages, just go the Folder List, click the disclosure
triangle next to "Custom Views" at the bottom, and then select the View you
wish to open.

Note that messages in the thread that aren't a reply to your message or a
reply to a reply to your message (and so on) won't be included in the View.
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

** Keep your subjects a reasonable length (under 72 characters, to be
precise). When subjects are longer than 76 characters (which they would be
in "Re: " replies to a 72-character subject) Entourage inadvertently adds a
space at that point so replies won't group with the original.
Click to expand...
Huh. Thanks Paul. I've been wondering what causes that, it's fairly
annoying.
 
R

R. Barre

When I post messages on a newsgroup, I'd like to be able to just click on
that newsgroup and quickly see if there are any replies to any of these
messages.

Is there some way to flag my posting so that any replies are automatically
flagged as well? That way, I could just sort by flag and see replies to all
my postings.
Click to expand...

Set up a custom view with the selection criteria:
<specific header> [contains] (put your email address in here)

Either check 'all folders', or select a specific folder to check.

This view will show all newsgroup messages that appear later in a thread you
have participated in.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Barry. Unfortunately when I check "This folder", the Newsgroup
folders don't appear as choices - only "Folders on my computer" and my
specific email account folders show up.

So my criteria are "Subject" 'contains" and then the subject header, and so
the custom view shows me three copies of every message I sent: 1 from the
Sent folder, 1 from the news group, and 1 without any folder listed.

It's better than nothing (and actually works well, except for the multiple
copies), but this would be a lot simpler if Entourage would just have the
simple feature Outlook Express has, namely, a way to flag a thread for
"Watching".
 
M

Mickey Stevens

When I post messages on a newsgroup, I'd like to be able to just click on
that newsgroup and quickly see if there are any replies to any of these
messages.

Is there some way to flag my posting so that any replies are automatically
flagged as well? That way, I could just sort by flag and see replies to all
my postings.
Click to expand...

Set up a custom view with the selection criteria:
<specific header> [contains] (put your email address in here)

Either check 'all folders', or select a specific folder to check.

This view will show all newsgroup messages that appear later in a thread you
have participated in.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Barry. Unfortunately when I check "This folder", the Newsgroup
folders don't appear as choices - only "Folders on my computer" and my
specific email account folders show up.
Click to expand...

You need to go to File > New > Custom View when you have the newsgroup open
in the foreground for it to appear in the "This Folder" selection.
 
Top