Alternative to Syncing Outlook Note Sub Folders to PDA without 3rd Party Software!

[shankstas]

Well I did a search on all solutions that were given about the problem with Syncing Note Sub Folders in outlook to the PDA. But none of the posts that I found had my suggestion that I've been using. So here goes, this is my alternative (which i found much more useful after I started using it this way) to sync my notes! Well like some of you out there, I had all my notes organized into sub folders in outlook and when I bought my PDA I was so dissapointed at the fact that Sub Folders in Notes cant be synced. So this is what I do now, I created a folder called "Notes Backup" under the "Personal Folders". This new folder that I created I set it to contain "Mail and Post Items" so it treats it like email. From here I redid all my folders that were under my notes folder into the new folder (which took a long time but it was well worth it for me!) And wabbam! I can sync all my sub folder notes into my PDA. Just simply open active sync> Tools> Options> Highlight "Inbox" and click settings> and finally check all the folders that you have just created to be synced to your PDA! Now, you would find all your notes under the email function and all your notes are perfectly organized! I've been using it this way for a couple of months now and just recently I ran into a conflict where everytime I connect my PDA to my PC it tells me that there are 12 items in my inbox not synced. I just sync it and it goes away.. But its always 12 items. I looked at all my notes in outlook to see if it deleted any of my notes but it hasnt (il look into that later i guess.)

So here's a screen shot of my outlook. You will notice that theres the real Notes folder and then there is the Notes BackUp that I created where I migrated all my folders into.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87...as/Outlook.jpg

If your wondering what the deal is with the green numbers on some of the folders its because I set up those certain folders to let me know how many items are in there. Which can simply be done by right clicking the folder> Properties> then selecting the radio button under the "General" tab that states "Show Total number of items". This is a great way to help me if I ever forget about certain things. Like as you can see under my "Items lent to people" it has 1 item under there. *_*
This method rather than sticking with the Orginal Notes is so much better to me because I can copy a recipe I find online drop it into its folder under notes and just sync it to my PDA and much much more!


NEGATIVES>>>>>>>>>>>

The Negatives to this is

1) From your PDA you cant edit any of the emails and

2) Active sync wont notice if you create a new email and move it into any of those folders within your PDA.

But either way what I do is I still use notes like I did before (Example: In my pda I record something, write a note, etc.) then I sync it to my PC and I just drag and drop the note to its folder or if its something I wrote using the Stylus I just rewrite it and drop it into my new notes folder and resync again. Please be aware that when you create a new message and save it, Outlook will automatically save the message into the "Drafts Folder" so you will have to drag and drop that into the folder where you want it to be. As for files that you record, I made a "Unedited Sound File" Folder (which is in the picture as well) so I can free up space from my PDA by moving the sound file to that folder so I can edit the file later (A really silly example: if I'm driving and I go through the sunpass lane and my sunpass beeps telling me to replenish my account I just grab my PDA, hold the record button and say "REPLENISH MY SUNPASS ACCOUNT!@#") so at the end of the day when I get home I can add it as a task to finish it up at a later time *_*. Im totally not busting out my stylus and try to write any task while I'm driving!! ThanksLeetRecordButton ^_^

Well this pretty much sums up how I now use my Notes section in Outlook. I hope this helps anyone out there that wants a free way of organizing there notes. I personally dont care anymore if they enable the Notes section to copy subfolders since I'm more content with this method that I do now. Plus there is obviously alot more features available when using the email function rather than having it under notes! Some of my Notes contain Diagrams, Charts, Graphs! Oh yeah, inorder to automatically set any Diagrams etc to show up in your PDA, You MUST select the checkmark where it states "include File Attachments" (make sure not to limit the size of attachments) this option is found under the Inbox settings in active sync. Have FUN! = )

P.S. All this applies to WM 2003 SE. I dont know how it will be in WM5. Hopefully the two negatives that I listed in the Post doesnt occur in WM5. If anyone can test this out in WM5 and its successful please say so because Il upgrade in an instant!!

[nath@nbriggs.com]

looks a good solution and it works on WM5 although better not to have AS crippled.

BTW what version of outlook gives you an item count I can't see it in 2002?

[shankstas]

looks a good solution and it works on WM5 although better not to have AS crippled.

BTW what version of outlook gives you an item count I can't see it in 2002?

Hey there, as for Active Sync being crippled. I went ahead and corrected the issue after I read your post. All I had to do was
1) Go back to settings under the inbox and uncheck all the folders that I had added into my "Notes Backup" folder (I also unchecked the "Notes Backup" folder.
2) I resynced to my PDA (which erased all the notes from the PDA but not the folders).
3) I went back into settings re-checked all the folders and synced again. (Which in theory would be a clean sync from my PC notes to the PDA).

Doing that resolves the issue that I had mentioned in my first post. (Im pretty sure the issue arose from me moving existing folders back and forth/renaming folders which must of confused my PDA or something!) ^_^

As for the version of Outlook that I'm using its Outlook 2003, I have another PC with Outlook 2002 installed in it and I checked for that option and your right it's not found anywhere there. So i guess this option is only available for 2003.

When you mentioned that "it works in WM5" did you mean that the two negatives that I stated dont happen in WM5?