Good morning!


Thanks for taking the time to read this. I have searched around the forums for an answer, and I'm sure there is a simple (hopefully)one, but my dusty knowledge of Outlook is not helping me find it.

I use an Outlook tasks table to manage in and out flow of jobs, and so far I haven't found another program that manages it as well with enough fluidity to make it clear enough for everyone else that needs to reference it as well. I am totally dependent on this table to get the job done.

I had a nasty surprise this morning, finding it completely missing when I logged in. No goodbye note, suicide note or ransom note.

I have restarted both Outlook and the PC itself, checked deleted items, archives, checked and turned on and off settings, views, any window, folder, tab or button I could open or click trying to find it. My IT guy has made a run at it as well and he can't find it either. Any roll back on the mail system will roll back the entire companies emails, whatever that means.

I really don't want to recreate the wheel if I can help it, the schedule is pretty extensive. If anyone has a brilliant idea, a tip on a hidden cache, a weird Street Fighter combo of buttons, I would appreciate any help.

Hello Sherry; I make extensive use of the Outlook-task table too! i have found that auto-updates can make changes to these. When you go the Outlook-tasks module, what do you see? Post a screen-shot if you can.



- John

Hi John!

Ha!! Luckily I took a screen shot to send to our IT guy, because I started repopulating the table, it's a pretty critical daily use/update kind of thing or I would absolutely post a screen shot. It gets really overwhelming and easy to screw up unless I keep on top of it. There should be the screen shot attached.

I'm unsure if it was an update problem, last update on this machine was 5 days prior, however most of the rest of the machines here updated over the weekend and most of them lost calendars.

It kind of makes me worry when we switch to 365 in June.

Thanks for your help.
Sherry

Attached Images

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Sherry; In the Tasks module, click on "To-Do List". Does this make your hidden tasks re-appear?

Good morning!

Currently yes, now that I've rebuilt my schedule. At the time of the disappearance, no. The only thing the To-Do List showed were the emails that I had flagged in my inbox.

Hi Sherry; Sorry you had to re-enter your tasks

You have a lot of custom fields so you must have created a custom form to create new tasks.What you might want to do is to create a separate task directory for these forms. The default set-up of Outlooks has one tasks directory, aptly named "Tasks". The Outlook "To-Do List" is a composite view of all of these task directories. This is a powerful feature but causes confusion because it's not generally known. As you state that these tasks are "pretty critical", I'd put them in their own directory with a specific view configured.



Conversely, I have a directory called "Administrative Tasks" that I do not want to waste my time thinking about until it's time to do them. For example my re-occurring task of "pay bills" comes up the last Friday of every month - today. When I check this task off as "complete" it will disappear from my view (but not be deleted).



Another directory I have is (sales) "Prospecting". These are prospective clients in my sales cycle. I do not have to contact any of them... but if I don't do sales, my revenue will dry up. For this reason, I do not want to see tasks in my prospecting directory in my "To-Do List" view.



My point is different kinds of tasks require different ways of organization and creating different Tasks folders is a way to accomplish this.

Hi John

Luckily this is the only thing I need to keep track of on this machine. For my purposes, having them all on one sheet for quick reference is the best use. A lot of what I'm keeping track of is being worked on concurrently by different departments and it's easier to keep track if it''s all together. Also, as this is not my only job here, expediency is pretty important so I can finish up here and move to my other responsibilities.
When I was in sales and having to keep track of multiple jobs and multiple deliveries at a time, I usually used the calendar, I never really thought to use the task tables.
Since the last update completely borked the company calendars for most if not all of us, I'll make a suggestion downstairs. My current OTHER job in a totally different department, doesn't require that level or kind of multitasking. I kind of wish it did now.

Well, our receptionist, who's a wiz at all things Office, (except Outlook of course), is setting up a way for me to do a back up so I can repopulate in the event this happens again. it looks like Outlook has planned for this need...

Hello Sherry; As a disclaimer, I have never actually done this. On the computer with Tasks list you want to export;
1.Click File > Open & Export > Import /Export >Export to a file
2. Select Outlook Data File (*.pst)
3. Select the folder containing your Tasks (Outlook is set-up with one tasks directory (aptly titled "Tasks" but you may have created an additional directory for your work-order tasks list)
4. Type in a file name to export to.


You can then import this *.pst file into Outlook on another computer. As noted above, you may want to import this into a separate folder. When you have two or more task files in your Outlook, the To-Do List is a composite view of all of them.