Linking Emails with Business Contact Manager

One of the most powerful aspects of Business Contact Manager is its capability to link all emails that you might send to an existing BCM item (either a contact or an account). Through email linkage, you can see everything that's taken place over the course of the account's or contact's life. Every email you send to the contact or account is automatically linked without you lifting a finger.

When you first install BCM, every email folder is configured for automatic email linking. That means even if you have rules that direct incoming messages to another folder, those messages will still link to your BCM item. You can configure this automatic linking to work with only certain email folders. For example, if the only messages you ever redirect to your Family folder are those from your sister, you probably don't need to link the Family folder. To configure automatic linking, select Business Tools, Link E-mail, Auto Linking to display Figure 36.28.

Figure 36.28. BCM automatically links emails from all of your Outlook mail folders with existing accounts and contacts.

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Uncheck any folder you don't want BCM to include in its automatic linking. If you want to disable automatic linking, click the Clear All button. To reselect all emails for automatic linking, click the Select All button. Click OK when you're done.

Automatic linking works on any new email you receive after installing BCM. However, you probably already have numerous messages in your mailbox or Personal Folders file that you want to link to BCM accounts or contacts. You can crawl your email folders at any time to establish links between existing emails and BCM accounts and contacts. Simply select Link E-mail from the Business Tools menu and choose Link Existing E-mail to display Figure 36.29.

Figure 36.29. You can examine your Outlook folders for existing emails to link to BCM accounts and contacts at any time.

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Simply select the folders you want to have BCM check for email messages to and from your accounts and contacts. By default, all mail folders are selected. However, you can clear the check box next to any folder to exclude it from the search. When you've finished selecting the folders you want BCM to crawl, you can also filter the linked items by date. BCM can ignore items older than a certain date. Click the Start button to start the crawl. This process can take several minutes to complete. If you've selected Close This Dialog When Complete, you return to your Outlook window. Otherwise, you return to the Link Existing Items dialog box. If the dialog box is still open, click Close to return to Outlook.

NOTE

If you want to link most other items, such as tasks, business notes, meetings, and phone calls, you need to create the individual items through the Business Contact Manager interface or use the Business Contact Manager linkage toolbar to link the item.

For example, any appointments you create by using your Outlook calendar will not be automatically linked to the contact even if you use the Contacts button on the bottom of the appointment form to link the appointment to the business contact. You must use the BCM toolbar to link the item manually. See the next section for detailed information about the BCM toolbar.




Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
ISBN: 0789729563
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 426

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