Map Outlook categories to Google calendars

[mdyck]

Hi there. Thanks for the great software. It really rocks. I would like to be able to map Outlook categories to Google Calendars. I realize this might be a lot of work, but thought I'd ask anyway. It would make this the ultimate in awesome tools.

[flroots]

Yes, that would be very nice. In the interim, I go into my Galaxy Nexus and manually move each contact into the appropriate Google Group. Once it's updated in Google, I export my Google contacts to PC as a backup so that the Google Groups are not lost in future sync, etc. BTW, my Google Groups have the same name as my Contact sub-folders in Outlook 2010. Also once done I can set phone Contacts to a custom view showing only the desired Google Groups.
Pete

[mdyck]

I think we may be talking about two different things. I meant more for calendar items then contact items. In my Outlook calendar I assign categories to different types of items. For example seminars are one category, work appointments are in another, recreation in another. It would be nice if they could be mapped to different Google calendars as I like to share my recreation calendar with my wife. Currently all new appointments in Outlook are synched with my main default Google calendar, which I can specify within the app on the phone. Actually, that in itself is pretty cool. In earlier versions of MPE it synched to the default phone calendar and that didn't synch with Google, but that has been improved.

By the way I noticed using Outlook categories for my contacts seems to work very well. I transitioned away from having multiple Outlook contact folders and assigned them all categories some time ago (personal, work, hockey team, etc.). When it synchs MPE seems to translate those categories to contact groups, and then on the phone I can go under display options and filter by group. Very handy and I noticed when I signed into Google contacts I could filter by category their too.

[flroots]

I think we may be talking about two different things. I meant more for calendar items then contact items. In my Outlook calendar I assign categories to different types of items. For example seminars are one category, work appointments are in another, recreation in another. It would be nice if they could be mapped to different Google calendars as I like to share my recreation calendar with my wife. Currently all new appointments in Outlook are synched with my main default Google calendar, which I can specify within the app on the phone. Actually, that in itself is pretty cool. In earlier versions of MPE it synched to the default phone calendar and that didn't synch with Google, but that has been improved.

By the way I noticed using Outlook categories for my contacts seems to work very well. I transitioned away from having multiple Outlook contact folders and assigned them all categories some time ago (personal, work, hockey team, etc.). When it synchs MPE seems to translate those categories to contact groups, and then on the phone I can go under display options and filter by group. Very handy and I noticed when I signed into Google contacts I could filter by category their too.

Thanks. Yes I was referring to sub-folders in Outlook 2010 Contacts. That's very interesting what you say about Categories. I'll give that a try. I've been manually moving my Contacts into Google Groups on either phone or google.com so maybe that will be easier and more streamlined.
Pete

[mdyck]

That's very interesting what you say about Categories. I'll give that a try.

Yes, and in Outlook it's easy to search, sort and group your contacts by Category if you want. I noticed no real loss in efficiency by moving away from contact sub-folders. In fact, in some ways it's better as you can have contacts that are members of multiple categories.

[flroots]

That's very interesting what you say about Categories. I'll give that a try.

Yes, and in Outlook it's easy to search, sort and group your contacts by Category if you want. I noticed no real loss in efficiency by moving away from contact sub-folders. In fact, in some ways it's better as you can have contacts that are members of multiple categories.

Thanks. And since you've been so helpful, how do you sort all these contacts in the same folder. It seem the Phone wants to sort on First or Last name. Does that mean you put company names into the Name field instead of (or in addition) to the company field?
Pete

[mdyck]

I don't believe there is an easy way to group contacts on the phone by company name using the native contact list, at least the one I have which is Motorola's version of it. Maybe another manufacturers flavour of it might do it, or a third party app.

You could create groups for each company and then filter by group, but that sounds like a lot of annoying work.

I did find that you can search a company name and it returns a list of the contacts who work for that company.

Anyway, good luck. Hope it works for you. MPE is pretty amazing software in my opinion. Kudo's do the developer, if they are following along. And if so I'd still be interested to know the possibilities with that category mapping in calendars.

Over-and-out
Mike

[dvhttn]

... Thanks. And since you've been so helpful, how do you sort all these contacts in the same folder. It seem the Phone wants to sort on First or Last name. Does that mean you put company names into the Name field instead of (or in addition) to the company field? ...

I've just started using DW Contacts ... https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... free&hl=en ... and with that you can order by 'Organisation', just checked.

HTH.

[flroots]

... Thanks. And since you've been so helpful, how do you sort all these contacts in the same folder. It seem the Phone wants to sort on First or Last name. Does that mean you put company names into the Name field instead of (or in addition) to the company field? ...

I've just started using DW Contacts ... https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... free&hl=en ... and with that you can order by 'Organisation', just checked.

HTH.

Interesting. Can MPE sync to a 3rd party contacts app? I was under the impression it worked only with the native contacts app. If true, I will definitely be looking for something better
Pete

[dvhttn]

... Interesting. Can MPE sync to a 3rd party contacts app? I was under the impression it worked only with the native contacts app. If true, I will definitely be looking for something better ...

MPE inserts, in this case, contact date, into Androids 'contact storage'. The local 'People' app (or whatever it is called on your variation of Android) reads from the local contact storage. "Most" 3rd party apps also read from the same storage so no problem there. You just have to make sure that you choose the correct place to 'Add new contacts to' (with the MPE app) and then 'display' that same account in the local people app.

There are 3rd party apps. that have their own local database but that should be fairly obvious from the app description and the fact that they cost a lot more than a simple contacts app.

Oh, and the same is true of the calendar apps.

HTH.

[flroots]

... Interesting. Can MPE sync to a 3rd party contacts app? I was under the impression it worked only with the native contacts app. If true, I will definitely be looking for something better ...

MPE inserts, in this case, contact date, into Androids 'contact storage'. The local 'People' app (or whatever it is called on your variation of Android) reads from the local contact storage. "Most" 3rd party apps also read from the same storage so no problem there. You just have to make sure that you choose the correct place to 'Add new contacts to' (with the MPE app) and then 'display' that same account in the local people app.

There are 3rd party apps. that have their own local database but that should be fairly obvious from the app description and the fact that they cost a lot more than a simple contacts app.

Oh, and the same is true of the calendar apps.

HTH.

Thanks. Very interesting. How did you happen to hit upon DW Contacts? I just installed it. Looks like it runs alongside the native app, right? It looks like it allows for sorting according to Company, Title, events, etc. Certainly a step up over the native app.
Pete

[dvhttn]

... Thanks. Very interesting. How did you happen to hit upon DW Contacts? I just installed it. Looks like it runs alongside the native app, right? It looks like it allows for sorting according to Company, Title, events, etc. Certainly a step up over the native app. ...

Was never happy with the stock app, as you say, limited sorting. OK just for personal use but for business, and sometimes for personal, sorting by company makes things a lot easier. Tried a couple of apps but found all by searching, either a straightforward Google search (good for finding forums you don't normally read and tech. sites with 'reviews', etc) or just looking for 'contact app' in the Play Store. It's no great hardship to test them out briefly.

Oh, and I use it "instead" of the native app. for contacts and dialer.

HTH.

[flroots]

... Thanks. Very interesting. How did you happen to hit upon DW Contacts? I just installed it. Looks like it runs alongside the native app, right? It looks like it allows for sorting according to Company, Title, events, etc. Certainly a step up over the native app. ...

Was never happy with the stock app, as you say, limited sorting. OK just for personal use but for business, and sometimes for personal, sorting by company makes things a lot easier. Tried a couple of apps but found all by searching, either a straightforward Google search (good for finding forums you don't normally read and tech. sites with 'reviews', etc) or just looking for 'contact app' in the Play Store. It's no great hardship to test them out briefly.

Oh, and I use it "instead" of the native app. for contacts and dialer.

HTH.

Thanks. I'm just a week into my Galaxy Nexus so it's really helpful to see how others go about selecting apps. I think my Android comes from Google pretty bare-bones since there are no carrier/mfg apps installed over and above the native Android. That's kind of good since it forces me to select my own apps I suppose

Back on DW Contacts, is it true that it matches Outlook categories to what it calls Groups, but the native Contacts app doesn't recognize Outlook categories? Also, it appears that if I want to edit a contact in DW Contacts it switches me over to the native Contacts?
Pete

[dvhttn]

.... Back on DW Contacts, is it true that it matches Outlook categories to what it calls Groups, but the native Contacts app doesn't recognize Outlook categories? Also, it appears that if I want to edit a contact in DW Contacts it switches me over to the native Contacts? ...

Hmmm. Now you mention it it does use the stock contacts editor, but them you find a lot of contact apps do similar. Some even use the stock contacts viewer. Haven't found it to be a problem, especially as 99.9% of my contact editing is done on Outlook (my 'master' contacts database). The phone app gets used to add a name/number only very occasionally.

Can't really help with the categories as I use sub-folders within Outlook to sort mine. However the topic does come up a lot and a 'search' through the forum hers hould bring up lots of hits. Remember that Outlook and Android don't necessarily share the same fields within their respective contact databases. There are a lot that do translate on a 1 to 1 basis and more that have an equivalent but there are a few that have no direct equivalent. No point in complaining to the sync app developer though, that's Google/Microsoft for not getting their sh%t together and agreeing on some form of commonality. I can see why they don't, but in not doing so it just means that us, the poor customer, is left high and dry!

[flroots]

.... Back on DW Contacts, is it true that it matches Outlook categories to what it calls Groups, but the native Contacts app doesn't recognize Outlook categories? Also, it appears that if I want to edit a contact in DW Contacts it switches me over to the native Contacts? ...

Hmmm. Now you mention it it does use the stock contacts editor, but them you find a lot of contact apps do similar. Some even use the stock contacts viewer. Haven't found it to be a problem, especially as 99.9% of my contact editing is done on Outlook (my 'master' contacts database). The phone app gets used to add a name/number only very occasionally.

Can't really help with the categories as I use sub-folders within Outlook to sort mine. However the topic does come up a lot and a 'search' through the forum hers hould bring up lots of hits. Remember that Outlook and Android don't necessarily share the same fields within their respective contact databases. There are a lot that do translate on a 1 to 1 basis and more that have an equivalent but there are a few that have no direct equivalent. No point in complaining to the sync app developer though, that's Google/Microsoft for not getting their sh%t together and agreeing on some form of commonality. I can see why they don't, but in not doing so it just means that us, the poor customer, is left high and dry!

Thanks. Does MPE do anything with your Outlook sub-folders when syncing to phone or are they ignored once the data gets over to the phone? Based upon my limited testing, the sub-folder are ignored, but the Outlook categories are recognized and moved into Google-compatible Groups. I'm wondering if I can use both sub-folders and categories on the Outlook side (with equal names)?

Update: I just tested it and I can create both Outlook sub-folders and categories and MPE with DW Contacts does create Groups on the phone and Google. The Groups don't seem to get created unless DW Contacts installed.

Pete

[FJ]

To answer the initial question: myPhoneExplorer does currently nothing like "routing" based on a subfolder or Group. I plan to add sync rules like "Insert Outlook items from calendar x to phone calendar y" but this will be based on outlook-Folders. categories are not good for this usage cause a item can have multiple categories

[mdyck]

Thank you for the explanation. That makes sense. Otherwise we end up creating duplicate calendar events in the case where multiple categories are selected, and we don't need that.