Making an org chart from Exchange, part 2.5

Here's a link to one of the samples I'm using while building this:

http://vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=222

In the author's words:

Dumping the Global Address List (GAL) to Excel provides an list in a form that can be easily searched or summarized. I recently had a phone call that was garbled and I caught only a fragment of his mobile phone number. I was able to quickly find this person's details by searching the Excel list. Can also be used to find multiple addresses in the GAL or to filter the GAL by location.

Here's another:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa201300

And another:
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=40

And from the OutlookCode.com, above, links here:
http://www.slovaktech.com/code_samples.htm#DLToWord

Making an org chart from Exchange, part 2

So what I want to do is, like I said before, is build a report that displays an org chart for my organization.

In order to do this, I'm think I'm going to need to

• Figure out SSRS - I've done lots of Crystal Report writing in a previous life, so this should be more a matter of learning the UI
  
• Find the data lurking somewhere inside of Outlook
• Write a VBScript extraction routine inside of Outlook to push the data to a database source somewhere
• Write the report, being cognizant of the org structure of my organization, and how the data is grouped
  

Making an org chart from Exchange, part 1

I want to do this:

Life with Word

Life with Word can be fun. However, in Word 2007, MS introduced the automatic paragraph line behavior. This does not support how I use Word. I finally had enough, and went hunting for help - I found this article on the MS support site that tells you how to fix the issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921174

Outlook: clear task due dates

I really like Outlooks 2007's task list features. However, I have some resistance to being told to do things "TODAY, like RIGHT NOW!!! SEE??? I put the task in RED in your task list!! Now you MUST do it!!"

Yeah, that? Not my favorite part.

So, I wrote a macro to adjust the dates in Outlook, so they don't turn red automatically.

Sub BlankDueDates()
On Error Resume Next
  Dim ns As NameSpace
  Dim fld As Folder
  Dim task As TaskItem
  Dim items As Outlook.items
  Dim rest As Outlook.items
  Dim filterSQL As String
  Dim i As Integer
  i = 0
  Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
  Set fld = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks)
  Set items = fld.items
  Set rest = items.Restrict("[Status] <> 'Completed'")
  For Each task In rest
      If task.DueDate <> "1/1/4501" Then
          task.DueDate = "1/1/4501"
          task.Save
      End If
      i = i + 1
  Next

  For Each task In rest
      If task.Importance <> olImportanceNormal Then
          task.Importance = olImportanceNormal
          task.Save
      End If
  Next
  MsgBox ("Done")

  Set ns = Nothing
  Set fld = Nothing
  Set task = Nothing
  Set items = Nothing
  Set rest = Nothing

End Sub

Outlook: Cleaning up contacts

I love my BlackBerry.

I hate manually cleaning up after the fact when it snargleblatts itself inside Outlook.

Here's a quick-and-dirty macro I wrote to clean up after it snargleblatted my contact list by adding the string "(Home)" and "(Work)" to the names of some of my contacts without asking.

Sub AdjustContactName()
On Error Resume Next
  Dim ns As NameSpace
  Dim fld As Folder
  Dim contact As ContactItem
  Dim items As Outlook.items
  Dim i As Integer
  i = 0
  Dim changeflag As Boolean
  changeflag = False

  Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
  Set fld = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts)
  Set items = fld.items
  For Each contact In items
      If InStr(1, contact.FullName, "(Home)") Then
          contact.FullName = Replace(contact.FullName, "(Home)", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If InStr(1, contact.FullName, "(Work)") Then
          contact.FullName = Replace(contact.FullName, "(Work)", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If InStr(1, contact.FileAs, "(Home),") Then
          contact.FileAs = Replace(contact.FileAs, "(Home),", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If InStr(1, contact.FileAs, "(Work),") Then
          contact.FileAs = Replace(contact.FileAs, "(Work),", "")
          changeflag = True
          i = i + 1
      End If
    
      If changeflag Then
          contact.Save
          changeflag = False
      End If
  Next

  MsgBox ("Done." + vbCrLf + "Counted: " + CStr(i))

  Set ns = Nothing
  Set fld = Nothing
  Set contact = Nothing
  Set items = Nothing

End Sub

Calendar Reporting Part 5

When you push the Export Times button, you should get a window like this.

From ForBlog

You’ll note that the dates I picked begin on Monday, 5 October 2009, and end on Friday, 9 October 2009. A note on this: It remembers that last dates you used, so you have to re-set the dates to the current week every Friday. Also, make sure you pick “Recurring Events” and “non-times-tagged items”!

Once you hit export, you should get an Excel window like this. Check out the diagram tab, if you selected “Create Excel Diagram” in the Export Popup!

From ForBlog

Calendar Reporting Part 4

Then, I assigned each recurring appointment a category. This will change its color in Outlook. So, let’s say I have a Monday of a week that looks like this (with some content changed to protect the guilty!):

Calendar Reporting Part 3

Next, I defined some custom categories in Outlook. Because I sync Outlook with my Treo smartphone, this part was easy. Along with defining the categories, I assigned each custom category a color. Now my category list looks like the following.

Calendar Reporting Part 2

First, I grabbed a copy of Outlook Times Addin 1.1 from here: http://outlook-times-addin.wang-sweden-ab.qarchive.org/



All I had to was shut down Outlook, install the product, and then restart Outlook.



I then had a new toolbar in my calendar that looked like this:

Calendar reporting

I use my calendar heavily to track both my personal and my work life. Since I use a Treo, I have no problem recording events realtime as they happen in my calendar, and assigning the tasks a category. However, it seems to take a lot of time to build my status report at the end of the week each Friday.

What I wanted was a tool that would convert my Outlook appointment info into a useable format, so I could quickly remove any unneccessary tasks, like a meeting I didn’t attend, and then just send it on.

Here’s a sample of one week. I’m sure many people have calendars that are much more crowded than this!

Outlook Calendaring

So, I'm just happily emailing along the other day, and I need to arrange a conference call.

Now, usually, this is a simple matter of popping open Outlooks calendar, entering the name of the person I want to meet with, and clicking the Scheduling Assistant button up at the top.

In this case, however, no one I tried to enter would come back with free/busy information. I live in my calendar, and use it for time and billing tracking, so having inaccurrate information in there drives me to distraction.

A quick search on Google later, and I found this link:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.exchange.admin/browse_thread/thread/bbf7ac547e6e60dd?pli=1

In short, this is what it says:

This is a known "feature" by Outlook 2007 clients. To make a long story short, you can re-enable it via modifying the following registry tweak: under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Options \Calendar add a the dword "UseLegacyFB" with the value 1


One quick registry edit, and I was back in business!