some help with the tools? Outlook plugin and MM 7.0?

[tygab]

I have the outlook plugin which I've been using for over a year, and am pretty dependent on. This syncs to my Motorola Q and for task mgmt I use Oxios. Has worked well enough for runway level, which is sadly where I've been operating for a long time. Essentially, outlook is my trusted system and if it's not in there, well, it should be.

To get into some of the higher level horizons & project planning I recently got MindManager 7 pro to work with Outlook. The problem is, I am really not finding a nice way for MM to export to Outlook tasks, especially with the plugin in place. Say I have a MMap called "projects" and I'd like to import each sub item there to a corresponding Add-In project. I can't seem to find a way to do this.

I've also tried with a single project map. Suppose I have 15 tasks defined. I can import the tasks, but they land in Outlook with at best a "category" but no way to assign them to an existing project.

I suspect, if I didn't have the plugin, and were starting from scratch, maybe I could do this around categories, but, the thought of having to redo what I've got in place to be able to bridge between MM and Outlook is giving me that knotted stomach feeling.

Has anyone else faced this? Are there good references to getting the most out of Outlook and MM together?

TIA...

 

[smithdoug]

Does MindManager 7 have an Outlook Task Bar?

I haven't yet found a sufficiently compelling reason to upgrade from MindManager 6 to MM7 so I can't say for certain. I'm guessing that what you're really looking for is a way to export a "task" branch from MindManager to Outlook and have it show up there with the appropriate GTD add-in meta-tags (project, sub-project, etc). And without having to sift through the 400 or so other tasks to find the ones just imported so that you can open them up and apply the tags. I doubt if there is a way to do this. Which makes MindManager far less usable than it could be. Which is probably why I haven't upgraded.

Do you have OneNote 2007? Then you are likely familiar with the Outlook Task Bar where you can tag any selection in OneNote and turn it into a task that synchronizes with Oulook. It has Outlook 2007's familiar red flags; for Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, etc. And it also has an Outlook icon which opens up the corresponding Outlook task window. It's then possible to classify the task with the appropriate tags used by your favorite item; Netcentrics GTD-Addin, ClearContext, etc. Very, very handy.

Since MindManager went to xml some while ago, it should be eminently possible for them to add a OneNote-like Outlook Task Bar. They presumably now speak the same language. If Mindjet were to do this, MindManager would be much more usable for those of us who use various add-ins, and they'd get more of my money.

 

[tygab]

No, MM7 does not have an outlook task bar (just an export option). You are correct about what I was looking for... and I still haven't turned up the perfect solution.

I did however stumble across one that appears workable and similar to what you suggested: OutLinker which adds in a toolbar to MM, and may be the best intermediary to go between them. It can let you add a task from your existing ones to a map, or create a new task which goes to the map and Outlook simultaneously. It also can feed in email/calendar items to MindManager too. I will keep working with this to see if it can be a more natural workflow between the visuals of MM, and the table/list oriented world of Outlook.