Diary, Export Tasks to Outlook

 

There are many different versions of Microsoft Outlook, but the principle for exporting to them is always similar…

·        Step 1 - Export your Durell data to a spreadsheet and save it as a “Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)” file

·        Step 2 - In Outlook select the option to import a “Tab Separated Values (Windows)” file

 

Before starting it is crucial that you understand how to export data from Durell to Excel (see “Documents, Spreadsheet, Output”), after which you should create a new “Data Set”, exactly like that illustrated below, called “Export Tasks”.

 

 

Step 1 - Export from Durell

Starting from Durell’s Main Menu…

·        Click the “People” button

·        Click the green “W” button on the toolbar to activate the Document Viewer

·        Click the “New Excel” button

 

 

·        Use the “Select records” dropdown, as shown above, to select…

o        either “Memos, all” for all tasks

o        or “Memos, outstanding” for just those without a tick in the “Done” box

·        Use the “Diary” dropdown to select the diary containing the tasks (e.g. “GILBERT for All Advisers”)

·        Use the “Diary from” and “…to” fields as follows…

o        for tasks within a date range set both fields (n.b. the default setting is for tasks on today’s date only)

o        for all tasks clear both fields (as illustrated above)

o        for tasks up to a date clear the top one and set the bottom one

o        for tasks after a date set the top one and clear the bottom one

·        Set the “Data field set” dropdown to your set called “Export Tasks”, as described above

·        Click “OK”

 

 

·        Save the resulting Excel spreadsheet, like that shown above, in the root of your local hard drive as a “Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)” file, e.g. as “Tasks.txt”, as shown below

 

 

Be Consistent!

Because you’ll probably want to repeat this process on a number of occasions you should always use the same Data Set in Durell (e.g. “Export Tasks”, as described above) so that the resulting Excel file has the same columns in it, and always save the Excel spreadsheet as the same type with the same name (e.g. as C:\Tasks.txt) so that Outlook recognises it and automatically associates the Durell fields with its own (e.g. automatically associates the Durell “Memo - Text” field with its one called “Subject”). The first time you load the data into Outlook you’ll have to set-up these associations (i.e. via the button in Outlook to “Map field names”, but thereafter it’ll be done automatically, as follows…

 

Step 2 – Import into Outlook

On the menu line in Outlook (top left) select…

·        “File” then “Import and Export”

·        Click “Import from another program or file” - this is the action, as illustrated below

·        Click “Next”

 

 

·        Click “Tab Separated Values (Windows)” - this is the type of file to import, as shown below

·        Click “Next”

 

 

·        Use the “Browse” button to locate your saved spreadsheet, e.g. C:\Tasks.txt, as shown below

·        Click the option to “Replace duplicates with items imported”

·        Click “Next”

 

 

·        Click “Tasks”, as shown below, to select the folder in which to import the spreadsheet data

·        Click “Next”

 

 

·        The first time you complete this process you must click “Map Custom Fields”, as fully described in a separate section below

·        Click “Finish” to load the data and thus complete the process

 

 

·        Your Outlook’s “Tasks” folder (n.b. having clicked “View / Current View / Simple List”) should now look like that illustrated below

 

 

Map Custom Fields

The first time you run this process you’ll need to tell Outlook how to receive the data from the Durell spreadsheet, for example that the value in the Durell data field called “Memo - Text” should be saved in the Outlook data field called “Subject”. The three associations you need to specify are listed in the table below…

 

Durell Field Name

Outlook Field name

 

 

Memo – Date

Due Date

Memo – Text

Subject

Memo – From user

Notes

 

To do this, as shown below…

·        click the “Clear Map” button

·        click on the “Memo - Date” field in the left window and drag it to the right side of “Due Date” in the right Window

·        click on the “Memo - Text” field in the left window and drag it to the right side of “Subject” in the right Window

 

 

·        scroll down the right window till you see “Notes”

·        click on the “Memo – From user” field in the left window and drag it to the right side of “Notes” in the right Window

·        click “OK”

 

 

Provided you always use the same import file from the same location, Outlook should thereafter “remember” these associations and you shouldn’t need to repeat this mapping.