Wow - thanks for the detailed reply!

I've tried expanding the search box - but it only seems to cater for emails
- not Contacts - and doesn't include Categories.

Typically, I search on a combination of categories, within a single Contact
folder, and eliminate records containing a word such as "template" in the
Full Name field. I then (and this is the really heavy bit) print out the
results using a pre-formatted report - which is saved along with the search
in the .oss file. To do all of this from scratch every time takes about 15
minutes, instead of the 30 seconds or so it took using a saved search. I'm
looking into whether I could search, export the selected data and then import
it into a spreadsheet already set-up with the print layout....

On activations - I did this via email using the free support period (which
has now elapsed) after trying by phone was unsuccessful. I won't bother
trying that again unless I can't resolve this problem in some way,
particularly as I can't run 2002 and 2007 together and I'd prefer to stick
with the latest, and hence supported, version (particularly having paid for
it!)

"Diane Poremsky [MVP]" wrote:

Are you entering the keywords as 'keyword1, keyword2' ? Expanding the
instant search box to show fields? Instant search is almost as powerful as
Advanced find (it doesn't do all fields) and much better than the old Find.
The big draw for Advanced find is that it’s a separate window, so you can
keep working in outlook while it searches, run multiple searches at once,
and keep the results up for hours. (Instant search is almost instant, as are
custom views.)

Are the searches across the entire mailbox or just a single folder? Custom
views work great to apply a 'search' quickly (they use the same filter
dialog as advanced find). Automatic formatting uses the same filter dialog
too, if you need to apply another filter to results (ie, show all mail from
domain.com, directly to me in blue, where I'm cc'd in green and everything
else is bcc'd or newsletters).

While you can apply a custom view to multiple folders, it's not as useful as
a search tool, since its separate folders. On the other hand, using too many
folders within outlook makes it much harder to find anything - its much
faster to apply a view to one folder than it is to use advanced find to
search 30 folders.

No on two versions of outlook. You could do it with a VM, but that works
best with Exchange accts (since you can't access one pst with two outlooks -
you'd need to close one first).

As for the activations - did you try calling in to activate and they told
you absolutely no more? Unless the activations were very frequent, at most
you need to call in - my calls for excessive activations (following
reformats) were all automated.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

Outlook Tips by email:


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"ianggjames" wrote in message
...
I personally don't agree that "improvements in outlook 2007 outweigh the
loss
of OSS files". I only bought it because, having had 2 laptops in a row
stolen, I'd exceeded allowable activations. Instant search, frankly, is
useless to me, because it doesn't permit searching using a combination of
categories and keywords and doesn't allow me to exclude records I don't
want.
You're right about O2003 - my mis-type - it does work with O2002 though
(but
not sure if I'll be able to reinstall that on my desktop PC because of the
number of previous activations). Advanced Search still works, of course -
it's just so annoying to have to reinput the search criteria every time
and I
still think it's sad that the really useful facility to save searches has
been arbitrarily removed. Do you know if I can have 2 versions of Outlook
running on the same PC? (if so, I could possibly use 2002 to open .oss
files
when I need to run and print my saved searches). As I said before - not
exactly progress!!

"Diane Poremsky [MVP]" wrote:

Um. Unless you stick with older builds, it won't work with Outlook 2003
either. One of the SP's blocks it for security reasons. Frankly, the
improvements in outlook 2007 outweigh the loss of OSS files- especially
since they are only 'lost' for non-mail folders. Plus, instant search
makes
up for some of it - the last 10 instant searches are saved, so they are
easy
to select.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

Outlook Tips by email:


EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:


You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...s/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


"ianggjames" wrote in message
...
Unbelievable! I guess that's what Microsoft calls "progress". Back to
Outlook 2003 and £80 wasted.

"Diane Poremsky [MVP]" wrote:

It was removed from outlook 2007 - the open menu is for mailbox
folders,
not
oss files. You can make search folders for mail - unfortunately you
can't
save searches for other item types.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

Outlook Tips by email:


EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:


You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...s/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.


"ianggjames" wrote in message
...
I've just upgraded to Outlook 2007 (I know, silly me!) and it won't
open,
save or even recognize Office Saved Search (.oss) files. The
Advanced
Find
function (which is what uses these files) exists in O-2007 and
contains
the
Open and Save options in the drop-down menu (so presumably the
functionality
is there somewhere?), but they are greyed out so they can't be used.
I've
applied the regedit fix described in the Knowledge Base (although
that
is
only claimed to fix O-2000 and O-2003) but it doesn't make any
difference.
(Actually, doesn't work on O-2002 either, but at least after
applying
the
fix, if you click on a .oss file it opens the search in Outlook OK;
but
this
doesn't happen with O-2007.) Can't find anything about this problem
under
Help or technical support for O-2007 (searches on "advanced find",
.oss,
or
"saved search" come up with no relevant results). Anyone know how
to
activate this functionality?