Outlook "categories" question

Ive got a weird problem.

For some reason, in my TASKS on my blackberry I have over 50 named categories to choose from (that are specific to finance and may have been imported when I worked at a large company and other people added categories onto one of our proprietary systems that synced with Outlook).

Actually, now im thinking these might be categories from an old version of Outlook but when I switched to 2007 and the color coded system, it may have dragged all those old categories over?

Anyways, now I work on my own and in my Outlook, I can only see about 20 categories in Contacts and maybe ten that I am actually using in Tasks.

However, some of the categories used from old contacts say "not in the Master Category list".

Where is the non-Master category list found?

 

Check out this MSDN blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2006/02/17/534491.aspx

Search for "not in the master category list".

 

This is a very informative blog but it unfortunately does not have the answer I am looking for.
It tells me how to take a category that I know is not in the "master category list" and then assign it a color.

I am looking for a list of ALL my categories, including the ones not in the master category list, so that I can just delete all the ones I do not use.

 

There is no such list. The only list is the master category one. The "legacy" categories you see from the old version of Outlook are not available in any list, they are just attributes on individual messages.

One thing you might be able to do is change your view of tasks or contacts to a category view. Then you can see what messages have these rogue categories and delete (or change) the categories on them.

Gary

 

Did you click (in OUtlook) on EDIT > CATAGORIZE > ALL CATEGORIES, then select and delete the ones you don't want?

Or....ignore this and listed to ScuderiaConchiglia

 

Heres the issue:
The "legacy" categories are showing up as category options on my Blackberry making it impossible to find the category I am looking for quickly (because there are over 50 categories in total).

I guess I can just delete them one by one on my BB or in the category list view as you mentioned above its just a pain in the ().

 

Agreed, it is a hassle. I went through a similar execrcise when I upgraded to Outlook 2007. At least you only have to do it once. ...big ol' grin...

Gary

 

..but if you organize your mail by category in outlook, then change the old mail categories, then resync to the blackberry, won't the old deprecated categories go away?

 

Yes-and im on exchange so it will sync automatically.
The hassle is going through all of them and deleting the old ones while simultaneously referencing the master category list.

Its not rocket science im just lazy.

Im wondering though-would it be easier to erase them in my Blackberry or on my desktop??

 

OK, I got it now. Thought it was just me and it was you all along

(easier to do on a desktop for me, but it takes me 10 minutes to type "Hello" on a blackberry so I am not a good judge of this)

 

Is there any way to have a seperate list of categories for Tasks and Contacts?

 

I have a bunch of "legacy" categories that came over from my older version of Outlook that I would like to now delete.
Unfortunately when I go to click on it to then delete it, the "delete" button on the left gets grayed out.

What to do?

 

On the left??? How are you getting to the category list? From an email view, I right clicked on one of the category buttons in the message list (see capture 1 below). I then select the "All Categories" button near the bottom of the category list and then I get the interface shown in capture 2, below. Some of the catgories are legacy ones like yours but all of them can be deleted, i.e. the delet button on the right never greys out.

Gary

 

You see thats the problem-I cant see any of my legacy categories unless I actually click on a Contact that is still in one of those old categories.
When I do, and I list "all categories" it will show me my Master category List and there will be a couple of extra categories that actually say "Not From The Master Category List" in parenthesis next to the name of the old category.
When I click on it both the Rename and Delete categories get grayed out.

So, not only can I not delete but I can figure out how to list ALL of the categories, including the one that are not in the Master Category List.

 

As we discussed before those items labeled "Not from the Master Category List" are not in the Master Category list. Those items are all categories attached to one or more of your contacts. The only way to get rid of them is to remove them from the individual contacts. If you sort your contacts by category, you should be able to isolate these and remove them from each contact.

But I am still curious, you said the delete button was on the left. Can you post a screen shot so I can see the interface you are looking at?

Gary

 

I tried doing that.
There is no way to go into each contact and delete just the category.

As for what I originally posted; my mistake, I mean the right side for the delete button.
Same interface as yours.

 

No, don't try to delete the category, de-select the category. Once you do that from ALL of the contacts, the category should disappear from the list.

Gary

 

That I neither knew, nor have tried.
Will do and let you know how it goes.

Thanks.

 

I am "reading between the lines" on this. I am assuming that since these are not part of the master list, the ONLY place for them to reside is in the individual contacts themselves, therefore if you get them out of each contact, they SHOULD then disappear from the list. We'll both know soon enough! ...big ol' grin...

Gary

 

They are disappearing but theres one other problem_they arent being deleted on my Blackberry. They should, because my desktop over-rides my BB through Exchange.

Guess I am going to have to do it manually.

 

Once you have them cleaned up in Outlook, delete all the contacts from the Blackberry and re-sync.

Gary

 

I dont think ive ever "synced" my BB because I use Microsoft Exchange, which automatically syncs it for me (I thought).

Shouldnt Exchange just change automatically update my BB when I make changes to my desktop?

 

I can't answer the question about using Exchange to sync your BB with Outlook. I would think if you use Outlook to remove a category from the contact(s), then that category SHOULD also disappear from the contact(s) on the BB. Additionally, since the categories do seem to be disappearing from the list of categories once they are removed from all instances of contacts, I would think the same thing SHOULD occur on the BB.

Gary

 

I would agree, but thats not whats happening.
Now, many of my contacts can no longer be found on my blackberry but are still on my Outlook.
What even weirder is that if I dial the number of someone who I can no longer find on my BB, when I hit send it then shows their name!
After the call If I go search by nmae in the phone app or in contacts, it will again say "no addresses".

 

akwit - do not create multiple threads on the same subject, it is against the forum rules. Don't do it again.

 

Can you break the synchronization "subscription" between exchange and the blackberry, then delete all the contacts from the blackberry and then re-establish the sync with the BB and exchange?

Gary

 

What are you talking about?

 

You know what, I decided to just wipe the handheld and then resync all the info by deactivating and then re-activating the service through exchange.
Doing it right now and that should od the trick.

Thanks for all your help Gary.

 

I use Task and Memos for very different aspects of my business and would like the categories in each to represent those differences (Outlook 2007).
Is that possible?

I would like to have a separate group of categories to choose from when I use my Tasks than when I use memos.

 

Nope, not that I know of. BTW I assume since we didn't hear back that the re-sync did the trick.

Gary