I upgrade, move, or reinstall the OS on my PCs fairly often so setting a master category list with a macro is useful:

Public Sub ResetCategories()

    DeleteAllCategories
   
    CreateCategory “! goals”, 1, 0
    CreateCategory “! objectives”, 2, 0
    CreateCategory “! projects”, 3, 0
    CreateCategory “@ anywhere”, 4, 0
    CreateCategory “@ computer”, 5, 0
    CreateCategory “@ email”, 6, 0
    CreateCategory “@ errands”, 7, 0
    CreateCategory “@ home”, 8, 0
    CreateCategory “@ office”, 9, 0
    CreateCategory “@ phone”, 10, 0
    CreateCategory “1:1″, 11, 0
    CreateCategory “2 inbox”, 23, 1
    CreateCategory “2 someday maybe”, 24, 0
    CreateCategory “2 waiting for”, 19, 0
    CreateCategory “meeting”, 22, 0
    CreateCategory “holiday”, 17, 0
    CreateCategory “social”, 18, 0
    CreateCategory “STS”, 20, 0
    CreateCategory “travelling”, 21, 0
    CreateCategory “cards”, 25, 0
   
End Sub

Private Sub DeleteAllCategories()
    Dim objNameSpace As NameSpace
    Dim objCategory As Category
   
    Set objNameSpace = Application.GetNamespace(“MAPI”)
   
    If objNameSpace.Categories.Count > 0 Then
       
        For Each objCategory In objNameSpace.Categories
            objNameSpace.Categories.Remove (objCategory.CategoryID)
        Next
       
    End If
       
    Set objCategory = Nothing
    Set objNameSpace = Nothing
   
End Sub

Private Sub CreateCategory(strCategoryName As String, intColor As Integer, intKey As Integer)
    Dim objNameSpace As NameSpace
    Dim objCategory As Category
   
    Set objNameSpace = Application.GetNamespace(“MAPI”)
   
    If intColor > 25 Then intColor = -1
   
    objNameSpace.Categories.Add strCategoryName, intColor, intKey
       
       
    Set objCategory = Nothing
    Set objNameSpace = Nothing
   
End Sub

The following macros convert outlook items to tasks with different categories. Based on this blog post which in turn is based on this one.

• The item body is copied to the task body and the item itself is added as an attachment.
• If multiple items are selected, multiple tasks will be created.
• Created tasks are left open for editing.
• I am in two minds about deleting the item after the task is created and have decided against it at the moment.
• It appears that OL 2007 does not allow shortcut keys to be assigned to macros .

Public Sub CreateInboxTaskFromItem()
    CreateCatagorisedTaskFromItem (“2 inbox”)
End Sub

Public Sub CreateWaitingTaskFromItem()
    CreateCatagorisedTaskFromItem (“2 waiting for”)
End Sub

Public Sub CreateSomedayTaskFromItem()
    CreateCatagorisedTaskFromItem (“2 someday maybe”)
End Sub

Public Sub CreateTaskFromItem()
    CreateCatagorisedTaskFromItem (“”)
End Sub

Private Sub CreateCatagorisedTaskFromItem(catagory As String)

  Dim olTask As Outlook.TaskItem
  Dim olItem As Object
  Dim olExp As Outlook.Explorer
  Dim fldCurrent As Outlook.MAPIFolder
  Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
 
  Set olApp = Outlook.CreateObject(“Outlook.Application”)
  Set olExp = olApp.ActiveExplorer
  Set fldCurrent = olExp.CurrentFolder
 
  Dim cntSelection As Integer
  cntSelection = olExp.Selection.Count
 
  For i = 1 To cntSelection
    Set olTask = olApp.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
    Set olItem = olExp.Selection.Item(i)
    olTask.Attachments.Add olItem
    olTask.Body = olTask.Body + olItem.Body
    If catagory = “2 waiting for” Then
        olTask.Subject = olItem.SenderName & “: ” & olItem.Subject
    Else
        olTask.Subject = olItem.Subject
    End If
    olTask.Categories = catagory
    ‘olItem.Delete
    olTask.Display
    olTask.Save
  Next
 
End Sub

When I am doing anything more complicated than simple file browsing I use Xplorer2 rather than the windows file browser.

One of the features of Xplorer2 is the ability to run commands on files you have selected.

These are the commands I currently have set up:

• VS Cmd
  $”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\sdkvars.bat”
  Sets the console to act like a Visual Studio command prompt
• Get Public Key
  $sn -Tp “$F”
  Gets an assemblies public key (requires vs Cmd to be run first).
• DiffMerge Files
  >”C:\Program Files\SourceGear\DiffMerge\DiffMerge.exe” “$F” “$G”
  Uses Source Gear’s DiffMerge to diff files from each pane.
• DiffMerge Folders
  >”C:\Program Files\SourceGear\DiffMerge\DiffMerge.exe” “$P” “$I”
  Uses Source Gear’s DiffMerge to diff folders from each pane (although Xplorer2 does this well enough itself).