Will i loose catagories in outlook?

[gaikokuji...@gmail.com]

Hi, I wanted to start using the "categories" part of outlook 2003 but a
friend of mine said that he restored a backup of his outlook files and
had lost all his categories. I know how to go into the registry and
save/export the categories but i don't want to restore a backup at some
point and discover that all the tags/categories for each email have
been lost, that is maybe the categories are still there but the emails
themselves are no longer assigned a category(s). Can anyone shed some
light on this, if i backup via the registry and then restore next time
i have to restore my email pst files should everything be back the way
it was?

Cheers

-Gaiko

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The categories on the items themselves are never lost as long as you continue using the same Outlook .pst data file or Exchange mailbox. All the registry holds is a convenience list of categories you've added. You can delete all those categories in the registry without affecting any of the actual items.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

<gaikokuji...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1135123412.7...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

[gaikokuji...@gmail.com]

Really? So if my system gets nuked, but i have the .pst files backed
up, i will see all the catagories i had created before backing up?

Thanks

-Gaiko

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Yes, you will see all the categories on the *items* you created before backing up the .pst files.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

<gaikokuji...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1135305116.4...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

> Really? So if my system gets nuked, but i have the .pst files backed
> up, i will see all the catagories i had created before backing up?
>
> Thanks
>
> -Gaiko
>
> Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
>> The categories on the items themselves are never lost as long as you continue using the same Outlook .pst data file or Exchange mailbox. All the registry holds is a convenience list of categories you've added. You can delete all those categories in the registry without affecting any of the actual items.

>>

[The Blue Max]

Yes, you will see them for the contact, they will show in the 'View\ Current
View\ By Category' menu listing, but they will not be listed in your Master
Category List! If you choose a category function for one of these contacts,
their category shows in the list with the annotation 'not in Master Category
List.'

The upside is that you don't loose your custom category assignments, the
downside is that they are not listed in the Master Category List! This is a
huge problem since you can no longer choose any of your custom categories
from the Master Category List in order to assign them to new and exsting
contacts or other objects.

Apparently, there is a registry listing that can be exported and then
imported - but this is always a dangerous work-around for novices! What if
the old Outlook has been uninstalled, does the imported list overwrite new
category additions, what if I damage my registry ... a pretty messy game.
Any chance Microsoft has a utility for regenerating the master category list
from these 'floating' categories, without the danger of editing the registry?

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Exporting and importing a registry key is a pretty simple task, as is backing up the registry before the import. And the user can always just edit the list manually.

In Outlook 2007, the category list becomes integrated into the information store, rather than kept in the registry, so it will travel with your data, just like custom views.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

"The Blue Max" <TheBl...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:48A4DA1C-19C0-4F54...@microsoft.com...

>
> Apparently, there is a registry listing that can be exported and then
> imported - but this is always a dangerous work-around for novices! What if
> the old Outlook has been uninstalled, does the imported list overwrite new
> category additions, what if I damage my registry ... a pretty messy game.
> Any chance Microsoft has a utility for regenerating the master category list
> from these 'floating' categories, without the danger of editing the registry?
>
> "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:
>
>> Yes, you will see all the categories on the *items* you created before backing up the .pst files.

>>