Part III: Web 2.0 > Online Project Management > Gmail > Outlook > VBA > Labels


Part III: Gmail, Outlook, VBA and Labels


If you have read my recent ramblings on online project management and distributed teamwork (Part II), then you already know that Gmail serves as our little organization's central email account and is as such one of our backbones. Yes, Gmail is Beta, but so far we've not had a single problem with the account. Of course we maintain local backups of all our communications. If worst comes to worst and the Gmail account vanishes over night, we'd still be in complete posession of our data. And although I've never had to attempt this, I'm confident that it wouldn't be too difficult to re-import our email conversations into a Gmail account. If this is an issue for you, or if you are playing with the thought to upload your Outlook (or Outlook Express) messages to Gmail, have a look at these tools:

Gmail Loader or gExodus


When Google introduced Gmail with its 2GB of storage and built-in search function, the way people managed their emails changed somewhat. Suddenly you didn't have to worry anymore whether maybe one of your friends had just rendered your email account useless by sending you 20MB worth of cute puppies. As a consequence you might have not received that very important email from your possible next employer, or from the girl you'd met last weekend, or the confirmation message that you'd won the lottery. Actually, cross out the last one - that would have to be spam anyways.

There is another Gmail feature that has caused some excitement. If you've visited any of the Gmail forums in the past then you've probably come across heated debates on the "Labels versus Folders" issue. Personally I don't really have a preference. If you are happy with your well-designed folder structure you have probably no reason to switch to labels. For me, the issue was a different one. Gmail doesn't give you a folder structure (yes, you can imitate a folder system with labels but that really becomes cumbersome once you need sub-folders), so one is forced to use labels. Once you start using them, you'll discover that they are actually quite powerful and flexible. You won't restrict yourself to assigning a single label to a complex message, but will maybe use two or three. Where's the problem with that? Well, nowhere really, at least not until you start downloading these emails to your offline email client, for example Outlook.

Suddenly you will start wondering how you are going to organize these emails in a folder structure, especially if you are using an Outlook version that doesn't support the more flexible concept of search folders. A message that is labelled "Administration", "Meeting" and "Recent Events" on Gmail - in which folder are you going to store that in Outlook? Luckily, Outlook has everything that is needed to replicate Gmail's label system, and has already offered this functionality long before Gmail made the system popular.

Outlook's equivalent to labels are categories. Categories can not only be assigned to messages but also to contacts, appointments or tasks. So it's easy to assign the message from the example above the categories "Administration", "Meeting" and "Recent Events". Once that is done, you need to define a few custom views in order to filter your messages by categories. Say you activate the view "Administration", then only messages that contain the label (category) "Administration" will be displayed. Similarly, a view called "Archive" will only show emails that have an "Archive" label. And an "Inbox" view will only display items that do NOT have the "Archive" keyword. The principle is clear, but the workflow is a bit awkward. Assigning labels (categories) and activating views doesn't happen as easily as with Gmail...

I decided to find out if I could improve things a little with some old-fashioned VBA code. That's one thing that I appreciate about Outlook (actually, about the whole MS Office suit): so much becomes possible with a few lines of VBA. Implementing a (hopefully) better interface for labels didn't turn out to be too difficult. I call the result Outlabel :) - a little helper tool designed and tested for Outlook 2000 (might also work with later versions of Outlook).

Below is a description of my implementation. If you think it might be useful to you, feel free to download the code. Make sure though you read the disclaimer.

Outlabel - Labels for Outlook 2000

Let's start with a screenshot. Click on the image to make it larger...

Key features of Outlabel:

• Label emails, contacts, appointments and tasks
• Integrates into Outlook's forms (messages, contacts, ..)
• Integrates into Outlook's main toolbar
• Contrary to Gmail it allows you to have sub-labels
• A single, keystate-controlled menu allows you to:
  Create labels, assign labels, remove labels, rename labels;
  View all items with a particular label
• Use shortcuts for your labels:
  Assign a label to an item with only two keystrokes
  No mouse or scrolling necessary
• Create easily and in no time hundreds of labels
  by editing a simple text file
  

How to use it ...

It is quite simple, really. After installation, you'll find a new menu called "Label" on the Outlook main toolbar and on the toolbars of the email, appointment, contact and task windows. With the help of these menus you can create, assign, and remove labels; as well as choose which items you want to have displayed (items with a particular label). The image above contains a table that tells you in detail what result you get when you click on a label while you press the Shift, the Ctrl or Caps key. Below a short summary ...

• Click without a key assigns that label to the selected item (s)
• Click with Shift key removes that label from the selected item(s)
• Click with Ctrl key shows all items with that label
• Click with Caps ON renames that label everywhere
• Click with Ctrl AND Shift deletes that label from everywhere
  

You can not only access the Label menu from the Outlook main toolbar but also for example from the message window. In that case, only the opened item will be affected. Note the additional bar at the bottom of the window - it displays the labels (categories) assigned to that particular item. This bar is only available in email windows, since contacts, appointments and tasks already have a visible categories field.

And finally a screenshot of the Outlook Inbox showing the Label (category) column ...







I've been using Outlabel for a while and it works well for me. If you'd like to give it a try, feel free to download it at the bottom of this page.

One problem remains: I use Pop3 to get my emails from Gmail into my local Outlook client. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to download the messages WITH the labels that were already attached to them in Gmail. That means I have to label them again once they arrive in Outlook. If you have an idea how to get by this limitation I'd love to hear from you.


LEGAL DISCLAIMER

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You can freely use this code for personal purposes. You are allowed to modify the code and distribute your modified version, provided you give credit for the original code. You are not allowed to sell this code or any parts of it. You can use it in your own applications and sell these, provided that you significantly expand or modify the functionality of the code. The code is Beta and provided "as is". There is no guarantee at all that it will work without mistakes or that it is even fit for any particular task. You are solely responsible for any damage that might occur to your system or your data through installing and executing the code. Outlabel has been tested on Windows 2000 and Windows XP with Outlook 2000.

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Download (350kB): Outlabel.zip

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Part I: Web 2.0 > Online Project Management > Gmail > Outlook > VBA > Labels


Part I: Web 2.0



Have you recently come across the expression "Web 2.0"? Well, in all honesty, presuming that you live somewhere in the western world and have access to the Internet, it would be hard to see how you could have avoided that term. The World Wide Web, Version Number Two. Sounds exciting! But what does it exactly stand for? An attempt to define the notion of a second generation Internet can be found at wikipedia: Web 2.0. The article discusses some of the characteristics of the new Web; its main ingredients like social networking, collaboration of the people, an ever expanding net of linked sites and shared services, the rapid growth of web based content (wikis being just one example) and functionality, and much more. The authors don't hide the fact that "Given the lack of set standards as to what "Web 2.0" actually means, implies, or requires, the term can mean radically different things to different people."

I'm one of those different people. I love Web 2.0! Exclamation mark.


Why? Do I dare to compare the Web to a huge playground for reluctant adults? I've long left my childhood years, my teenage years and even my twenties behind, but still I love to play, to explore, and to discover. In all of these aspects, the new Web is immensely exciting. Interaction is one of the keys to the built-in fun of Web 2.0.


Do you need a Customer Relation Management (CRM) tool? Go ahead, you'll find more than one hosted service. You might even be able to find a decent and free solution, if you can live with the ads. Do you feel voyeuristic today? How about a visit to YouTube or Google Video? The slogan of the first one is "Broadcast Yourself", and that's exactly what people do. You can safely abandon your feeling of shame: At YouTube the intimate aspects of other people's lives are spread out for your entertainment. The ultimate rendezvous between exhibitionist and voyeur, so to speak!

Ever heard of that Russian website that allows you to choose and buy from hundreds of thousands of songs - dirt cheap and without any Digital Rights Management? Using their service might or might not be legal for you, depending on where you live. But back to business: Are you part of an international team and working on small to large-sized projects? You have already experienced the hassle of communication through different time zones, of keeping distributed project plans up to date and in sync, of exchanging files through email...

An online Project Management System would make your life a lot easier, wouldn't it? Web 2.0 comes to rescue; you can have your online project management system on your own servers, or, and this is especially interesting for small and medium sized teams, use a hosted service. Somebody else will keep your system running, care for the safety of your data and provide you with ever increasing functionality. And again, some very good services are even available for free.

The list could be expanded easily since every day new "things" are born on the Internet. Web based TV recording, shared writeboards, spreadsheets and calendars, interactive world and city maps, translation services, and incredible much more.


So, all heaven, no hell? In a few years the Internet might well replace the classical "entertainment" distribution channels, for example TV and Radio. Already bandwidth is high enough for transmission of video content, and more and more of such content is going to be available. I guess all that Hollywood is waiting for is a securer than secure DRM for the Internet (sigh)! What will be the implications? If services like TV and Radio are fully available on the Net, the integration of the Internet into our daily lives will become even tighter. TV as the most widespread one-way street in history is going to be replaced by a multifunctional, interactive, worldwide available, all embracing NET. A medium that omnipresent, with its sheer limitless possibilities will inevitable reflect to some extend our human nature and the things we are capable off, in very positive but also in the most negative ways.

But stop, I'm drifting off. Back to Web 2.0 ... Are there any negative side effects to this wonderful (or maybe not so wonderful?) development? Well, one downside of all these useful new services is that we become more and more transparent on our way through the virtual world.


Imagine the Internet user of the future (a future which has long begun, by the way): She communicates on a very personal level with her international friends through a social online network. The owner of this service also provides her with an email account and a calendar, which she uses extensively to keep her community up to date on the events of her life. Of course she has registered the email account under her real name, as required by the TOS. Under the same name she is a registered member at an established online bookstore, where she maintains a public wish list for her family and friends: this way they will get a better idea of what she is interested in and can choose their little presents accordingly. The items she herself buys on the Internet she pays for using the online payment service that her email provider conveniently also offers. Since she spends a lot of time online she needs an efficient way to access information; therefore she uses a search engine that analyzes and stores her search terms in order to tailor the results more to her specific needs. The operator of this search engine is accidentally again the provider of her email account and her social networking platform. Oh, and have I mentioned that she publishes her holiday pictures on a large photo sharing website?

How does this sound? Depending on your level of paranoia you might be shrugging your shoulders or starting to feel a little uncomfortably. Personally, at this point I'm still willing do assume that none of the respectable online services are "doing evil" :-). Although, if somebody had the intention to create a profile on the woman from the example it wouldn't proof to be difficult, and the results would be very comprehensive. One argument I frequently hear is: "Well, if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about!" Is it really that simple? Or is there a chance that you just maybe will not get this particular dream-job because the HR director did not agree with the choices you had made on your public wish list at the aforementioned online bookstore? The answer is yours ...


Sometimes I wonder how much we can rely on our privacy-rights in times when governments desperately grab all the data they can get a hold of in their fight against international terrorism, in times of big business and advertising wars, in times of phishing, root kits and trojan horses.

So do I still love the Web 2.0? Yes, I do! But occasionally it turns, as with many things in life, into a kind of love and hate relationship. Have I already mentioned that I like to play? Well, most of the time the game is more fun if you know the rules and are equipped with the proper safety gear.



Feel welcome to post your thoughts ...


Are you part of a distributed project team? Do you ever wonder how you are going to keep your team connected? Are you in need of an online project management tool? Are you tired of swapping important files back and forth through email? Are you looking for a reliable, web-based file storage system? Continue in Part II !

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Part II: Web 2.0 > Online Project Management > Gmail > Outlook > VBA > Labels


Part II: Online Project Management


If you've read my previous post - Part I of this rather all-encompassing subject : ) - then you already know that I carry a slight fascination for the countless possibilities the Internet has recently begun to offers us. As I've mentioned earlier, I could probably be described as the curious, playful type - discovering and exploring the many new things that appear daily on the Web is simply fun. But beyond the entertainment factor there is also a very concrete reason why I appreciate this ever-developing infrastructure. Here's why...


I am a member of small, Canadian NPO that owns the rather unusual name "Locus Suspectus". A quote from our mandate:

"Locus Suspectus is a magazine of art and culture that engages in an interdisciplinary dialogue between contemporary critical theory and practice. Our goal is to showcase emerging artistic talents and contextualize them within internationally established artistic accomplishments and scholarship. ..."
(Sounds interesting? Please visit us at Locus Suspectus)


What began as the vision of three inspired individuals with a passion for art very quickly took shape and grew into a small but international undertaking. We are still a tiny fish in the pond but Locus Suspectus has already successfully made its appearance in galleries in Canada, Europe and the United States. At this point the people working for the magazine live in several different Canadian provinces, as well as in Austria, the Netherlands and in England. Which finally brings me back to the original subject: the services and infrastructure of the Web 2.0. Because, to put it simple, without this infrastructure we probably wouldn't be around.


While large enterprises can usually afford to develop and maintain their very specific workflow and network infrastructure, this is pretty much impossible for smaller teams on tight budgets and limited manpower. Luckily, these days the Net offers enough resources to create an efficient workflow for your small and medium-sized project team. The following solutions are based on hosted services; therefore you and your team can focus on your actual business and don't have to worry about installing and maintaining server-side software, or backing up your data on different servers. Another huge bonus: All the services mentioned are free, or offer at least a free version with reduced functionality.

So what do you need to keep your nationally or internationally distributed team members connected and your project on track? Well, of course every organization has its specific needs; in many cases though the following components should cover most of your requirements:

• A customizable web platform as an entry point to your online tools
• A central email account
• A central calendar
• An online project management tool
• An online file storage and file exchange platform
• A web-based customer relations management tool

Let's begin with the first one. At this time, Google's Customized Homepage and Netvibes are the most frequently used personal portal pages. Both should work equally well for our purposes, both have a huge user community and keep adding functionality to improve the user experience. To give you a better idea of what you can expect, here is a screenshot of the Locus Suspectus portal page, hosted on Netvibes.





This is the entrance platform for online collaboration for the Locus Suspectus team members. It provides a complete overview over the current state of affairs in our project. Building such a page is very easy - all the components you see are pre-fabricated; your remaining task is to choose the ones you find suitable from a collection of about 300 tools and to add them t0 your page.

• The three clocks in the middle column serve as a reminder that our members live in different time zones. This is helpful when scheduling a telephone conference or a chat meeting. Below is the obligatory set of search engines, and a little infobox for short announcements to the team.
  
  
• On the top left we have a calendar box. It's an iCal implementation and connects to our Gmail Calendar, where we keep our events and meetings up to date. The three main views - Agenda, Week and Month are just a mouse click away.
  
  
• The little widget below the calendar is hooked to our main email (Gmail) account. Right at our project start page it provides a quick overview over the most recent messages. A click on its header bar brings you directly to the inbox of your Gmail account.
  
  
• On the bottom left we maintain our bookmarks collection. From there we have quick access to our project management platform (Basecamp) and our CRM tool (FreeCrm).
  
  
• On the right side we have a very neat interface to Box.net, the online service we use for file storage and file sharing. Much of the functionality of this excellent service is directly accessible from this module. For example it is possible to up- and download files and to create or delete online storage folders right from this little box.
  
  
• Below an equally important tool: This is the Netvibes feed reader, connected to the RSS feed of Basecamp, our online project management tool. Whenever somebody posts a message, creates a new Todo or completes a Milestone on Basecamp, the activity is published immediately on our project start page. You can have more than one feed reader on your portal page, for example one for Basecamp and an additional one for your client's feed ...
  
  
  

Remember, this is just a subset of the tools available. You will find a lot more modules that might prove useful to you. Let's move on to the other items on our list ...

A central email account: Our organization uses several email accounts - for submissions, advertising, feedback, etc. All accounts are tied to our master email account. Whenever a message arrives in an arbitrary account it is immediately forwarded to the master account. Because of its rich feature set and its more than 2 GB of storage, we have chosen Gmail for this purpose. This structure allows us to have all incoming and outgoing mail stored in one single place. Of course Gmail offers Pop3/Smtp, so you can download the messages to your offline email client. Link: Gmail

A central calendar: Another score for Google :-). Its calendar is quite powerful and can even merge with other web-based calendars that understand the iCal format. We use this feature to transmit the agenda from our Basecamp project management platform right into our Google calendar. This way we have the dates for every meeting, event, or project milestone right on our platform page. If your offline information manager (Outlook, Entourage, ...) is capable of handling the iCal format, you can synchronize the Google calendar with your local client. Other features of the Google calendar are sending meeting requests or event reminders to your email or phone. Link: Google Calendar

An online project management tool: A must for any project that exceeds a certain complexity or time span. The problem with many project management tools is that they are overly complex, offer too many features and distract more than they help. Not every team member is an IT MA. The operators of the Basecamp service achieve a good balance between amount of features and ease of use. Even their free version is pretty complete and provides a practically ad-free user experience. The interface is clean, appealing and easy to get used to. Basecamp offers the tools you need for project management: Milestones, Todos, messages and (commercial version only) time tracking. Messages and Todos can be linked to milestones; an overview page immediately informs you about upcoming and surpassed deadlines as well as about recent activities on the project. The message forum is extremely important for a distributed team - it provides what email can't: a place for discussion and exchange of ideas. I've already mentioned that Basecamp offers RSS feeds for recent activities and milestone events. There's also a chat function built right into their website - no additional software needed. Link: Basecamp




And yes, we've cleared our late milestones by now!

An online file storage and file exchange system: Another must for distributed teamwork. Sending documents back and forth via email simply doesn't work. You need an online file repository where your data is save and accessible at the same time. Many online file storage systems are available today; Box.net is a very reliable and feature-rich representative of this category and has never let us down. They offer a free version with some limitations: You get 1 GB of storage with a file size limit of 10 MB. Their premium plan is already available for $4.99 per month and offers 5 GB of storage, a file size limit of 1 GB and a bandwidth limit of 20 GB per month. If you can convince ten friends to sign up for their service, Box.net will upgrade you from the free account to the premium account for free (for one year). They have 24/7 support through email and phone - an important fact to consider when it comes to the safety of your organization's documents. Other features are public and private file sharing, blog posting and (apparantly soon) an application called "Desktop Sync", which will automatically keep your online and offline data synchronized. Link: Box.Net

Web-based customer relations management: Once the number of your clients and partners is growing you'll probably need some sort of CRM tool. The best solution for a distributed team is again a web-based service, making the data available to every member everywhere. FreeCRM is a hosted customer relation management service that offers a very decent entry-level version (free, but ad-sponsored). Their introduction video will give you a better impression than I will be able to do, check it out here: Tour. It should be noted that the free version doesn't offer SSL encryption. You will have to decide whether you can afford to transmit your client's data over an unsecured connection. There's always the option to locally encrypt critical files. Link: FreeCRM

And that's about it. If distributed teamwork is a topic for you, then I hope I've been able to give you some ideas. Our organization has been using the structure and most of the systems described on this page for about a year - without any problems so far. Nevertheless I encourage you to carefully read the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy of each provider and find out if they agree with your business model.

Feel free to post your questions and comments.


Are you using Gmail as your email service and Outlook as your offline client? Have you got hooked on Gmail's labels and want to use them in Outlook too? Are you interested in old-fashioned VBA code? Check out Part III !

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