Linking Notes to Contacts

If you save information that pertains to a person in your contact list in an electronic note, you can link the note to the contact record so that you can easily retrieve the information later. Linked notes appear on the Activities page of a contact record.

In this exercise, you will link a note to a contact and then access the note from the contact record.

USE the SBS Program Logon Info note you created in "Recording Information by Using Notes" earlier in this chapter, and the John Emory contact record you created in "Saving and Updating Contact Information" in Chapter 2, "Managing Contact Information." If you didn't complete those exercises, you can do so now, or you can substitute any other note and contact record.

BE SURE TO display the Notes pane before beginning this exercise.

OPEN the SBS Program Logon Info note.

1. In the upper-left corner of the note, click the Note icon, and then click Contacts.

2. In the Contacts for Note dialog box, click Contacts.

   The Select Contacts dialog box opens.

   

3. With Contacts selected in the Look in list, click Emory, John in the Items list. Then click OK.

   

4. Close the Contacts for Note dialog box and the note.

5. In the Navigation Pane, click the Contacts button.

   Outlook displays the Contacts pane.

6. Locate and open the contact record for John Emory .

7. On the Contact tab, in the Show group, click the Activities button.

   Outlook generates a list of items linked to the selected contact. While Outlook searches for items, an animated icon of a magnifying glass moving around a piece of paper appears above the list.

8. On the Activities page of the contact record, click the Show arrow, and then in the list, click Notes.

   

   The Activities page displays the SBS Program Logon Info note.

CLOSE the John Emory contact record.

Recording Information in the Journal

Outlook can automatically record the details of selected types of activities (including messages, meetings, and tasks) related to specific contacts by using the Journal feature. You can view transactions related to a contact on the Activities page of a contact record. Outlook can also record the time you spend working with files created in other Office system programs, including Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office Project, Microsoft Office Visio, and Microsoft Office Word. You can view these records in a timeline or list in the Journal. You can use this feature to help you track the time you spend working on a specific task during the day, or to locate a file you worked on in the past.

To display the Journal, click Journal on the Go menu. If you prefer, you can add the Journal button to the Navigation Pane. To do so, in the lower-right corner of the Navigation Pane, click the Configure Buttons button , point to Add Or Remove Buttons, and then click Journal.

To record activities automatically:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

2. On the Preferences tab of the Options dialog box, click Journal Options.

   The Journal Options dialog box opens.

3. In the Automatically record these items box, select the check boxes for the types of activities you want to record.

4. In the For these contacts box, select the check boxes for the contacts whose items you want to record.

5. In the Also record files from box, select the check boxes for the programs whose files you want to record.

6. Click OK in the open dialog boxes.

Saving a Note as a File

If you ever need to work in another program with the information stored in a note, you can save the note as a rich text format (RTF) or plain text file. To save a note as a file:

1. In the open note, click the Note icon, and then click Save As.

   The Save As dialog box opens.

2. Browse to the folder where you want to save the file.

3. In the Save as type list, click the file type you want to create.

4. In the File name box, change the file name if you want it to be something other than the current note title.

5. Click Save.