Triage Your Email Inbox With Outlook Search Folders

these are useful tags for gmail too.

winshape

Disregarding the search folders for a second. What effectively happens to the email. Does it just remain in the actual Inbox with just a category assigned to it? If so, I think I will stick with the Trusted Trio.

Sounds like an Outlook version of labels in Gmail. Search folders are handy but slow and re-search each time you click on them. It would better if they just constantly updated live...

themattyg

The best way to get rid of messy Inbox is to sort it out! It is ridicules that people keep all the mails in the Inbox (thousands of emails). Imaging keeping all your paper documentation on your desk and trying organizing it using various stickers :). I just have 3 folders: Work, Personal, Subscriptions (analogue to Read Later). When I finish processing the incoming e-mail, I move it out of the Inbox. I also may attach the follow up flag when need to follow up it later (Outlook To-Do Bar is so useful thing).

AngeloCalvinus

I use the SuperStars feature in Gmail Labs to do something similar in Gmail.

KittyKittyKitty

@Garowetz: I would really like to see those scripts

Ashutosh Gholkar

This sadly seems to be an under appreciated setup. I've been using this setup now for just over a year. First lets explain the benefits

1. Acts just like Gmail labels
2. You can set up the categories to be what ever trusted GTD system you use.
3. Mail can belong to two or more categories
4. To mark an action complete you just click off the category and it disappears from that mail box
5. All mail stays in normal inbox (in one place), this allows for great Gmail like Search features with the built in Microsoft Desktop Search.
6. **This step is the key to adoption** A simple macro script and a few tool bar buttons allows you to quickly "label" your mail how ever which way you want. Add a tweak to the script and labelling the mail removes it from the inbox label, thus allowing for one click email triage

I have the script available if needed.

Garowetz

Conceptually I love tags in outlook, but atleast in Outlook 2003, I can't figure out how to do nested search folders which would be very useful for me organizationally and it's lack kind of eliminated my interest in tagging EVERYTHING.

Of course I was using this for better archival and searching not as described above. I use flags for that.

@Garowetz: Ditto, I would like that script too.

Matthew King

@Garowetz: Ditto, would like that script too.

KilianHizane

Er.... what about those emails that you need to ACTION? How are you doing to record those activities on your calendar and your taskpad? Watch this movie to learn why Microsoft approach is flawed..... http://www.orla.org/movies/movie_000p3.htm Cheers Stephen Barnes

JudyFeard

@Garowetz: I accidently copied my response below ... see farther down

Garowetz

I adapted the script for the way I triage my e-mail (although it does needs some updating) and then I created buttons on my tool bar to call the respective function. So I'm in my inbox and get an e-mail I can click on the "ToDo button and it disappears from my inbox and appears in my ToDo category. All the while I'm able to search all my mail at once. It's great freedom not having to worry about folders anymore.

Here's the script:

Private Function getMainInbox() As String
getMainInbox = "1. Main Inbox"
End Function

Sub MainInbox()
Call updateCategoryMain(getMainInbox, "")
End Sub

Sub ToDo()
Call updateCategoryMain("2. ToDo", getMainInbox)
End Sub

Sub WaitingOnSomeone()
Call updateCategoryMain("3. Waiting on Someone", getMainInbox)
End Sub

Sub Defered()
Call updateCategoryMain("4. Defered", getMainInbox)
End Sub

Sub SomedayMaybe()
Call updateCategoryMain("5. Someday Maybe", getMainInbox)
End Sub

Sub Reference()
Call updateCategoryMain("6. Reference", getMainInbox)
End Sub

Function updateCategoryMain(cat As String, catRemove As String)
Dim myOlExp As Outlook.Explorer
Dim myOlSel As Outlook.Selection
Set myOlExp = Application.ActiveExplorer
Set myOlSel = myOlExp.Selection
Dim i As Integer
For i = 1 To myOlSel.Count
Call updateCategory(myOlSel(i), cat)
If Not catRemove = "" Then
Call removeCategory(myOlSel(i), catRemove)
End If
Next i

End Function

Function updateCategory(mi As Object, cat As String)

Dim pos As Integer
pos = InStr(1, mi.Categories, cat, vbTextCompare)
If pos > 0 Then
a = Left(mi.Categories, pos - 1)
b = Right(mi.Categories, Len(mi.Categories) - pos - Len(cat) + 1)
res = a & b
mi.Categories = res
Else
mi.Categories = mi.Categories + "," + cat
End If
mi.Save

End Function

Function removeCategory(mi As Object, cat As String)

Dim pos As Integer
pos = InStr(1, mi.Categories, cat, vbTextCompare)
If pos > 0 Then
a = Left(mi.Categories, pos - 1)
b = Right(mi.Categories, Len(mi.Categories) - pos - Len(cat) + 1)
res = a & b
mi.Categories = res
Else
'Category doesn't exist in the string, so already removed
End If
mi.Save

End Function

Garowetz

@Garowetz: Thanks for the script. Two questions:

1. This is stupid of me, but "where" do I put this script. Do I place it in VB in outlook, or is it a text file that save in notepad?

2. When you say that it dissapears from your inbox, do you mean your search folder inbox or the real inbox. If the real inbox, then where does it go?

Thanks!

Matthew King

@Garowetz: OK, never mind the above email. I figured it out, I even edited the script to fit my category names...thanks again for this timesaver.

I have one favor though, how difficult would it be to edit the script so that in addition to categorizing the emails, it also moved them to a personal folder (in my case a folder with the same name as the category)?

My work has a size limit for exchange folders so I regularly have to move the emails out of the inbox into personal folders. I have a rule that I run periodically to do this (and I also set my search folders to also check these personal folders), but having it as part of the script would be amazing.

Matthew King

does nobody use just a search tool for outlook??? this is much more simple than using these damn search folderl, isn´t it?

AlroyBia

@AlroyBia: It works great in addition to the search tool ... so you can just search your categorized mail ... also this is a great way of coming up with an inbox zero system all the while allowing you to search the full repository of your mail

Garowetz

@Matthew King: moved or copied?

Garowetz

@Garowetz: moved, once it's assigned a category

Matthew King