InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by lucky_phil on 2010/01/05 21:55

Windows desktop search is an incredibly usefull function, improved in vista, and better again in 7. For those that don't know, in addition to doing searches for simple strings you know are in either a document or email, you can also be much more specific with it by adding control tags, e.g. from:phil, subject:holidays, author:, date: etc, etc, etc.

Here's a couple of links to help you drive this great function:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266520(VS.85).aspx

I regularly use it to find a email, or a document across all the archives in miliseconds.

Which leads me to my suggestion. Building linking into this in the item link functionality, which currently supports URL's, items, folders, etc. Of course you already can, but constructing the query string yourself, if you start with search-ms:query=......., using the new search engine functions (I have already allocated one to this), but it would be great to be able to do this in items also, especially for emails.

I have been using the outlook:GUID form or url's to link items to specific emails for ages. Problem is, if you ever move an email the guid gets changed, and the links are permanently stuffed. By building item linking using the search-ms: functionality would be far better. Of course building this would also enable a lof of other great search & find through one's documents & emails.

Pierre, what do you think?

Comments

If you can explain in detail how this would work, I can certainly look into it.

Do you want to:

Run MSSearch queries from IQ, or
Have IQ data indexed by MSSearch

What I was talking about was 1.

Don't know what OS you are on, but I'm on 7. This may work in Vista also. In the Start menu, search box type: "kind:email subject:sqlnotes". It should return a window with all your emails with the word sqlnotes in the subject. For you this is probably a lot, so change the sqlnotes to something else more specific. If you have desktopsearch running properly, this search will take milliseconds.

Now the same function in 7 (& Vista?) can be achived by calling the url: search-ms:&crumb=kind:email%20&crumb=subject:sqlnotes. Obviously IQ can already call URL's, but if it had the ability to construct this URL, based on configurable fields, and/or a upgraded hyperlink construct, this would be very powerful.

You see the search-ms: is a new, very useful URL format. Its just a lot of work to construct these urls in the existing hyperlink functionality.

Various other ideas come to mind, e.g. dragging & dropping an email, or copying & pasting, could construct this search-ms: URL link.

I'm guessing if you played with it a bit, you might have a few extention ideas yourself also?

That's a great idea which goes exactly in the same direction as my own vision for IQ.

At first I thought of doing #2 with various Desktop Search software -- ie : index iQBase). But #1 is actually much more intelligent : IQ becomes the interface through which all data can be seen. Searching becomes less fragmented.

Going a bit further... Have you used X1 in the past ? There are some similarities between IQ and X1 (grids, filter...). Of course, X1 was never meant to be that kind of software (task, project management, etc.) -- it could but it's not designed for that... But : IQ could be some kind of super X1. In the sense that it could not only search and filter info, but it is also an Information Manager/task-project...whatever... manager.

Imagine being able to access, integrate and organize all info on your computer... Through IQ ! I think it's possible.

I have looked at X1, and various others like it, like Copernica, but I'm actually finding MS desktop search the best, or most usefull anyway.

I already use IQ as my central repository for Project management, tieing togther Project Goals, activity, issues, people, todos and across all of these, progress entries, all linked back to relevent emails & documents. Nothing else does all this as well. The email linking is one of the most important parts, and I would so love to be able to simply drag an email onto an item, and have it build a link to that email, with the subject as the title, but the current UI, and the constraint that the outlook:guids get changed for emails if you move them have compromised this.

If you work from a PST file, doesn't outlook guids stay constant ?

Solutions I've seen is to create your own UniqueID in Outlook and linking to that

I don't know if moving items between folders in the same PST changes the guid. And for some reason, my Linker For Windows & even IQ are failing at present with giving me GUIDs, so I can't find out.

& I don't know how you would create your own unique ID's. That's what GUID's are for. There's an additional problem, if you call the outlook: protocol with a path to a subject which there are more than one item e.g. outlook:Inbox:My Email subject, it simply fails. Only the outlook:guid form always works, provided the guids remain valid.

Here's where the search-ms: is more usefull.

[quote=lucky_phil]

I have been using the outlook:GUID form or url's to link items to specific emails for ages. Problem is, if you ever move an email the guid gets changed, and the links are permanently stuffed.

[/quote]

FYI, Outlook only changes the GUID if you move an item between PSTs. GUIDs (contrary to what the G might imply) are only unique to a PST. You can move between folders no problem. What this means in practice is that you need to grab the GUID after you archive something (so you get its PST in its final spot), not before.

I wrote the following VBA script and assigned it to a keyboard shortcut. Instead of moving normally, I activate it so I get the archive GUID in the clipboard ready to be pasted wherever I need it. Maybe it well help for your use cases:

Private Sub MoveFlagAndCopyGUIDToFolder(moveFolder As MAPIFolder)

Dim myItem

Dim movedItem

Dim descriptions As String

For Each myItem In Outlook.ActiveExplorer.Selection

If myItem.Parent = moveFolder Then

Set movedItem = myItem

Else

Set movedItem = myItem.Move(moveFolder)

End If

With movedItem

descriptions = descriptions & GetMailItemGUIDDescription(movedItem) & vbCrLf

.Save

End With ' movedItem

Next ' myItem

CopyToClipboard descriptions

End Sub

Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long

Public Sub CopyToClipboard(strToCopy As String)
    Dim dataObject As MSForms.dataObject
    Dim WaitUntil As Double
    Dim I

    Set dataObject = New dataObject
    dataObject.SetText strToCopy

TRYAGAIN:
    On Error GoTo ERRHANDLER
    dataObject.PutInClipboard
    Exit Sub ' if success then exit
ERRHANDLER:
      Wait 2
      Resume TRYAGAIN


'    GetLastError
'    dataObject.PutInClipboard
End Sub

Sub Clear_Clipboard()
   OpenClipboard (0)
   EmptyClipboard
   CloseClipboard
End Sub

thanks for this !

I never used any scripts in Outlook. How do you integrate that to Outlook ? I guess I could find out relatively easily, but... If it's simple enough maybe could you describe it in a few words ?

Thanks!

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