What's the difference between Saved Searches and Custom Views?

[steve_hoge]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: pop

In Entourage 2004 I was used to creating and editing Custom Views. I used this especially to coalesce and view related Tasks.

When I upgraded my Main Identity to Office 2008, my existing Custom Task Views were integrated correctly.

Now, however, while I'm able to edit my old Custom Task Views, the only new type of "view" I'm able to create is something called a Saved Search, and it behaves differently.

For instance, I have a Custom Task View that shows all tasks with a specific category assignment, and when I select it I see all the tasks with that category. Trying to build a Saved Search with exactly the same criteria gives me an empty list.

So, two questions: 1) Are Saved Searches intended to be replacements with identical functionality to Custom Views? And 2) What am I doing wrong when contructing my new Saved Searches that there is no match for existing items?

 

[Diane Ross]

For instance, I have a Custom Task View that shows all tasks with a specific
category assignment, and when I select it I see all the tasks with that
category. Trying to build a Saved Search with exactly the same criteria gives
me an empty list.

So, two questions: 1) Are Saved Searches intended to be replacements with
identical functionality to Custom Views? And 2) What am I doing wrong when
contructing my new Saved Searches that there is no match for existing items?

They are the same with one difference. Entourage 2008 now uses Spotlight
search in Entourage to make this faster and give you options like search
"All Messages".

Three things could be the cause of your problems.

1) you don't have Spotlight turned on in Entourage preferences
2) you need to rebuild. There is a button in Spotlight preferences to
rebuild.
3) your Identity is corrupt

Entourage 2008 & Spotlight

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2009/05/entourage_and_spotlight.html>

Let me know what you find.

 

[steve_hoge]

Thanks Diane!

Re-enabling Spotlight - previously turned off because generating its indices tended to bog down my Dell Mini 9 - caused Saved Search to begin working again.

This situation seems like a prime candidate for a warning dialog along the lines of "Entourage could not perform your Saved Search since it could not find a Spotlight index".

It's strange that whatever parallel mechanism used for Custom View searching is still in there, hidden and inaccessible except to existing Custom Views imported from previous installations (or newly edited, using the familiar edit dialog from Entourage 2004 that's still in E2008). Falling back to that search engine in lieu of a viable Spotlight index would be a much more graceful strategy than simply failing silently.

 

[Ed Kimball]

Thanks Diane!

Re-enabling Spotlight - previously turned off because generating its indices
tended to bog down my Dell Mini 9 - caused Saved Search to begin working
again.

This situation seems like a prime candidate for a warning dialog along the
lines of "Entourage could not perform your Saved Search since it could not
find a Spotlight index".

It's strange that whatever parallel mechanism used for Custom View searching
is still in there, hidden and inaccessible except to existing Custom Views
imported from previous installations (or newly edited, using the familiar edit
dialog from Entourage 2004 that's still in E2008). Falling back to that search
engine in lieu of a viable Spotlight index would be a much more graceful
strategy than simply failing silently.

Agreed. I suggest you Send Feedback to Microsoft on the Help menu.