reply did not make it through...
hmm...apparently my somewhat extended reply did not make it to the forum...not a forum issue however. Had a couple of other problems at the same time.
Let me see if I can reproduce it in a shorter version. Better for all, probably.
Thank you for your suggestion. I did try copying to task. It will copy and can be categorized, etc. But cannot reply directly from task, or so I think at this point. I like being able to keep the emails as emails. Had hoped to be able to attach some kind of sticky note to them...Have not been successful thus far.
I did discover last night that I could attach a reminder to the email and edit it either before or after I put it in its @file. Seems a bit awkward...but it is closer to what I want. In the list of emails, right click on the one you want to notate, select "follow up", click on "add reminder", type your "next action" in the "flag to" box. Choose a follow up date (or none), drag it to its @file and you are done.
The downside of this is that the "next action/reminder" only appears in the body of the actual email. When you are looking for a couple of quick NA's to knock down, it is distracting to have to page through the emails. If a view could be arranged where these would be visible with the subject heading and sender, in the list of emails, it would work better with GTD, at least in my guestimation. "I can knock that out..." click, reply, type, send and you are done and on to the next one.
Interestingly, these emails with reminders show up in an Outlook "follow up" file as well as in GTD @folders I have set up. I can see a couple of ways to leverage this feature. But it sure would be nice for the next action text to appear in the list instead of just the body of the email.
Best wishes,