The Magic, the Mystery of Exporting from Outlook

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Vilmosz

Registered
For anyone who is using Outlook in the Contacts-as-Projects mode discussed in another thread: I gather this is NOT a method to use if one eventually expects to export data for any reason, for example, to Filemaker or Excel.

Am I correct in this assumption, or is there in fact a workable exporting option?
 
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vegheadjones

Guest
Dk the answer to that, but I am wondering if it is possible to export custom fields from completed tasks, such as the Project field from the Add-In. Based on your question I am guessing the anser is no, but thought I would ask.
 
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jpm

Registered
Outlook will not export the custom fields of an item (such as a task or contact) using the standard export facility. If you want to export these fields you'll have to write customized Visual Basic Code...

This makes any method of using outlook which requires exporting problematic.
 
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kglade

Registered
Perhaps some really generous person with VB skills will post the code to export the task data, including all the custom fields:)
 
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vegheadjones

Guest
Thanks

Thanks for the information, and I also hope from a gift from VB Santa, since I have no Visual Basic skills...
 
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kglade

Registered
I found a program that is able to extract custom fields from outlook and put them in a text or csv file. It has a moderate learning curve, but I was able to produce useable output in 30 minutes. Your results may vary.

www.ivitar.com/clipform

It has a free trial, fully functional but limited to 25 outlook items. Costs about $20. (I have no affiliation with them.)

I used the following template to put the items in a csv file that I could open in Excel. I included GTD custom fields "Action" and "Project". It handled them fine.
[Source=outlook:Tasks]
[Output=c:tasklist.csv]
"[Project]","[Action]","[Complete]","[Subject]","[Body]"

A few quirks...
...The field for notes is called "body" not "notes." This took me a while to figure out.
...It triggers the outlook security warning.
...It has not been updated since 2002 as far as I can tell.

Ken
 
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