Organizing Your Journal Entries

When you open the Journal folder, you'll see the default By Type view: a timeline grouped by entry type. This view has the date running left to right across the top of the pane, with the journal entries listed under the dates. The timeline view default shows seven days, as shown in Figure 13.8.

Figure 13.8. The default view for the Journal folder is a Timeline view.

To move around the journal, in addition to scrolling, you can right-click on the row with the month and year to display the date picker or right-click on the date scale and choose G o to Date. Although the Outlook bar has a link for opening shared journals, only Exchange Server users will be able to open or use shared Journal folders.

One of the first changes you might want to make in a Timeline view is to reduce the size of the font used for the month and year. Right-click on the bar where the month and year are displayed, choose Other Sett i ngs, and then adjust the size of the U pper Scale Font in the Format Timeline View dialog, as shown in Figure 13.9.

Figure 13.9. Change the timeline display options using the Format Timeline View dialog.

Other options you can change from the Format Timeline View dialog include showing week numbers and changing the maximum width of the labels displayed with the icons. You can also control whether the icon label displays when viewing a month in the timeline.

Use the View menu to select different views of your Journal folder, including timelines grouped by contact or by category, Table views showing all items or filtered by the last seven days, or limiting the display to phone calls only.

The Preview Pane is turned off on the Journal folder by default; however, you can turn it on using the V iew, Preview Pa n e menu selection. You can use the Preview Pane with any view, including the timeline, and can see all the journal fields in the Preview Pane. For security reasons, you can't open attached Outlook items from the Preview Pane, but you can open attached documents without opening the journal entries. In most views, you'll want the Preview Pane on the bottom of the window to maximize the viewing area for Timeline views, if you use it at all.

Using Views

After you create journal entries, you can use views to organize your journal in these ways:

• By Type The default view; based on the Timeline view with items grouped by entry type

• By Contact Based on the Timeline view and grouped by contact

• By Category Based on the Timeline view and grouped by category

• Entry List Based on the table list format; initially sorted by creation date

• Last Seven Days Based on the table list format; filtered to display entries created within the past seven days

• Phone Calls Based on a table list; filtered to display only phone calls

You might prefer to view your journal in a traditional calendar format. If so, you can create a custom view using a day/week/month format layout.

The journal can display the week numbers in a Timeline view. Right-click on the bar where the month and year are displayed and choose Other Sett i ngs. Then check the S how Week Numbers box in the Scales section.

The journal comes with six predefined views, using Timeline or Table layouts. You can customize these views or create your own custom views. You aren't limited to using Timeline or Table views with the journal: Day/Week/Month views also work well, although Icon and Card views do not.

These Timeline views group the journal entries:

• By Type

• By Contact

• By Category

Each of these views defaults to showing the journaled items for the week. You can change this to one day, segmented by the hour , or one month by clicking the Da y or M onth toolbar button. You can return to a seven-day view by clicking the W eek button.

The remaining preconfigured views use a Table view with filters controlling what you see:

• Entry List No filter used

• Last Seven Days Filtered to display entries created within the past seven days

• Phone Calls Filtered to display only phone calls

You can customize any of these views and create new views using your own criteria.

Customizing the Journal View

Journal comes with several views, all of which are customizable: Right-click on the top row of the journal and choose C ustomize Current View. The Custom View Organizer opens, enabling you to customize the current view to your liking. If you want to restore the default settings for the view, select the R eset Current View button at the bottom of the dialog.

When a button or option is dimmed, it isn't available for the type of view you're creating or modifying.

If you don't like the predefined views or need more views, you can create new views:

1. Select V iew, A rrange By, Current V iew, D efine Views to open the Custom View Organizer.

2. Select N ew to create a new view.

3. Enter a name for your view and select the type of view you want to create. Day/Week/Month makes a nice Journal view; Icon and Card views aren't very useful Journal views.

4. The Customize View dialog opens and you can set the options you want to see in the view (see Figure 13.10).

   Figure 13.10. The Customize View dialog lets you tailor the Journal view to your liking.

   

The options available to customize your view depend on the type of view you're creating. To use the view now, select Apply View when you're finished customizing it. You can apply the view at any time by selecting it by name from the Current View toolbar button or the V iew, A rrange By, Current V iew menu selection.

Instead of creating a new view from scratch, you can select an existing view in the Custom View Organizer, click C opy to create a copy of the existing view, and then choose M odify to edit it.

Viewing Journal Items for a Contact

Contacts provide an additional way to view journal entries: from the Activities tab of an opened contact form. In fact, many frequent journal users never use the Journal folder; they use only the Activities tab.

When you want to view the journaled items associated with a contact, open the contact and select the Activities tab. Select Journal from the Show: list to show only journal items.