Rules Wizard Wishes

A couple of weeks ago I talked about some annoyances and today I'll share a reader's comments about something many Outlook users find annoying: Rules Wizard.

Chuck has this to say about the rules wizard:

Every 24 to 48 months, I like to whine about Outlook Rules Wizard in the hopes that Microsoft will someday add the most basic of features. It feels like it’s time again. I have hundreds of rules and a few features found in nearly every piece of available software would make this tool infinitely easier to use. Any chance that we may actually see things like:

• Resizable windows – would be nice to be able to view more than 10 rules at a time

• Ability to Sort by name or other fields - If I add three or four rules (new employees, for example where each rule puts their mail into a separate folder), and I want to keep all like rules together (to find them later to edit), I have to manually move each one down one step at a time. I’ve taken to naming Rules in a sortable way hoping this will be added.

• Find – have to look at each and every rule to find the one I need to edit. Or to get back to the one I was editing, which I had to close because Rules Wizard doesn’t allow...

• Movable Windows - Sometimes I need to look at a message in the middle of editing a rule, to get the proper email address, for example. Why is this not allowed (true of several Outlook features)?

• Ability to change defaults – I don’t want every rule to be for “this machine only”. The few times I’ve had to transfer to new computers, this has been a major PITA. Never found an instance where this would have saved my bacon.

I can honestly say I've heard it all before, many times. Four of the five have been favorite requests since the first days of Outlook. Other popular requests include the ability to import and export rules using an editable file format (so users can edit the rules in Notepad) and a 'Select all' option to enable and disable all rules and to use with Run Rules Now. Users also want the ability to automatically apply rules later, such as after a message is marked read.

I haven't had too many people request the ability to set defaults for rules. In the case of ‘this machine only’, the purpose is to prevent rules from running on other machines where a folder or PST may not be present on the other computer. Rather than just not working in this situation, a rule moving messages to a folder that is not in the correct path may move the messages into a black hole, never to be seen again.

It's obvious that creating, editing and managing rules in Outlook is downright awful when people want the ability to edit rules in Notepad. Maybe it's for the best - if Outlook had a better Rules Wizard interface, more people would use rules to move messages into folders. Sorting mail into hundreds of folders isn't the best method of email management and it makes it harder to find messages when you need them.

"Movable windows" are a problem in many areas in Outlook (and Windows). The proper terminology for this type of window or dialog is "modal" and in most cases modal dialogs are used to force the user to complete the task.

For a list of third party rules tools, see
Automatic Message Processing Tools
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/auto.asp 

Follow up to "Attachments with CC/BCC"

JP wrote:

You posted a question from Dave, who asked about avoiding sending attachments to CC and BCC recipients. (Original article is at http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2009/up090129.htm#1)

I have a simpler solution: save the document to a shared network drive, or some online file sharing service, and simply create a link to the file in the email. That way you save bandwidth and storage space at the same time.

I have some sample VBA code showing how to do this using the Outlook Object Model:
http://www.codeforexcelandoutlook.com/blog/2008/09/send-links-via-outlook-email/ 

Thanks JP. You’re correct, saving messages to a shared network drive or a SharePoint site is a better option for internal email.

ActiveSync and Disappearing Events (again)

Last fall I mentioned many users were reporting problems with disappearing recurring events in Outlook after syncing a handheld device. The events are visible in any table view (such as By Category) but not in the Day/Week/Month view.

A hotfix is available for Exchange 2003 but the problem still plagues standalone users. While we wait for a fix, avoid editing events on the device.

Some recurring calendar items disappear from the "Day/Week/Month" view in Outlook when a user uses Exchange ActiveSync on a mobile device to modify a recurring meeting in an Exchange 2003 environment
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;958781 

Outlook Quick Tip: Misbehaving Date and Time Pickers

When you attempt to create an appointment or tasks and the date and time picker won't stay out long enough to pick a date, it’s not a bug in Outlook, its either because you are using the TweakUI power toy's X-mouse style mouse control or a pop-up blocker.