ClearContext v5 is currently in beta testing, with final release coming soon. This release makes ClearContext’s email management features faster, more automated, and more intuitive so it’s even easier for users to stay in control of their inbox. Here are some of the key differences you’ll find between ClearContext v4 and v5.0.
Filing
One of the biggest changes in v5 is an intelligent one-click filing system and project selector. The File Msg button on the toolbar now displays either the name of the project folder assigned to this conversation or a smart one-click filing suggestion (indicated by a question mark 
) for new conversation threads. Open the project selector ( 
) for additional filing suggestions or to quickly search for any folder across all your mail files.
Views and Prioritization
In place of ClearContext’s old inbox views, v5 uses categories to indicate important messages. ClearContext marks messages from your important contacts as “CC-VIP” and messages in threads you’ve participated in or from contacts you know as “CC-OK.” Customize category name and color in options or configure ClearContext to mark important messages with flags or Outlook priority. This lets you quickly scan and identify your most important messages. We’ve also provided three optional color-coded views using these priority indicator categories.
More Supported Configurations
Many of our customers run Outlook on multiple PCs. ClearContext v5 includes support to run ClearContext on each of those machines, keeping track of filing and prioritization information across them all. v5 also provides preliminary support for Outlook 2010 (Technical Preview – x86 only). Additionally, ClearContext v5 now provides filing support to unlimited Outlook mail files.
Features Not Included in v5.0
A few v4 features no longer exist in v5.0. FolderContext has been removed, as most pro users prefer to use Project Dashboards to view that information. FolderContext will be redesigned for the v5.1 release. Alerts and custom Notification Managers have also been removed in v5.0. Those two features will be redesigned for v5.2.
More to Come
v5.0 is just the beginning of the next generation of ClearContext. Our v5.0 release focuses on streamlining inbox management. Version 5.1 is dedicated to improving project management and dashboard capabilities. And 5.2 will focus on improvements to AutoAssign and related features. See our blog for the v5 product roadmap.
We hope the new features in ClearContext v5 make it an even more useful and seamless part of improving your Outlook and email experience. To preview v5, download the beta test version here. Post all feedback and issues in the beta section of our User Forums.
All v4 purchases made after August 1, 2009 and all ClearContext Connect subscribers will receive a complimentary upgrade to v5. This upgrade is available for all ClearContext customers, including the TWC/MYN powered edition of ClearContext Pro.
CC5.0 Beta: BUG REPORT: I just noted that during initial setup when processing folders for email history, it showed “Processing Folder X of Y: FolderName (500 of 500 messages)”. when there were in fact a few thousand messages in that folder. I am pretty ssure it processed all the messages in the folder okay, it just reported the number of messages in the folder incorrectly.
Posted by Tim McMahon on November 17th, 2009.
Tim – thanks for the feedback. For performance considerations the email scan only uses the 500 most recent messages in a given folder.
Posted by brad on November 17th, 2009.
[…] If you are trying out the Outlook 2010 beta, please give the ClearContext v5.0 beta – with 2010 support – a spin as well. Details and download available here. […]
Posted by Trying Outlook 2010? Try the ClearContext v5 beta | ClearContext Corporate Blog on November 18th, 2009.
So many links from the forum and elsewhere say that this is the page to find the beta 2 download.
Um, is it just me or is the only download link on this page the one at the very bottom, which is not the beta? 🙁
Posted by StewS on November 20th, 2009.
It’s just you. 🙂 See the statement in the second to the last paragraph of the post: “To preview v5, download the beta test version here.”
http://www.clearcontext.com/beta/
Posted by brad on November 20th, 2009.
New issue, though it may be unrelated to CC beta 2. My outlook just began to no longer accept mouse use inside a window (email or calendar)… there was a MS update this week, and I installed the beta 8 days ago. I first noticed this on Thursday, 19th, of last week.
Posted by Chad Ray on November 23rd, 2009.
Does the problem persist after a reboot?
Posted by brad on November 23rd, 2009.
How smart is the recommendation of the folder?
I.e. is it just based on past history, Re: replies?
Or do you do something like bayesian analysis?
—
I really would prefer to be able to add multiple tags. Inferred.
Posted by Andy Glew on November 24th, 2009.
Project suggestions are based on most recently filed by contact and frequency of filing. The ability to add multiple projects to an item remains on our list for future consideration. Thanks for the feedback.
Posted by brad on November 24th, 2009.
[…] now available for download here. For more info about changes and new features in v5, see this post. We’ve addressed much of the beta feedback; updates have been posted in the beta […]
Posted by ClearContext v5.0 Release Candidate Available | ClearContext Corporate Blog on December 2nd, 2009.
[…] more about v5 here. We’ll have new videos and tutorials for v5 coming […]
Posted by ClearContext v5.0 Released to Production! | ClearContext Corporate Blog on December 10th, 2009.
Currently, contacts are added to the project dashboard based upon receipt of an email and the subsequent creation of a link based upon the “from” field. Often, one would like to link a contact to a project prior to the receipt of an email from that contact. Please consider linking a project to a contact based upon the category field instead.
Thanks!
Posted by Tony Prescott on December 11th, 2009.
Tony – The ability to manually add/remove contacts is in consideration for our dashboard redesign due in v5.1. Thanks for the feedback.
Posted by brad on December 11th, 2009.
[Cross-posted from CC forums]
Have to say, I find $50 to be a significantly higher price than I’d expect to pay for a $100 piece of software.
I’ll grant that the multiple-machine/multiple-config support probably cost quite a bit to develop, and will cost more to maintain, and that seems appropriate to price at a premium.
IMAP support — which seems to be a very frequently requested feature — would similarly be worth a premium, IMO.
Other than multi-machine, however, the changes here seem to me to be largely UI improvements or incremental functionality, rather than truly new functionality. As such, they seem much more an update, rather than an upgrade, and therefore seem extremely expensive at $50.
But because it’s all bundled as a single upgrade, those of us who don’t care about multi-machine support are stuck with a tough choice.
Any chance you will consider rolling the non-multi-machine features back to v4.x?
Posted by Matt on December 23rd, 2009.
As you mention, big parts of the v5 upgrade are “behind the scenes” infrastructure improvements. Multi-machine and multiple datastore support are two of the biggest improvements that involved a lot of engineering effort. While we don’t have IMAP support in 5.0, these improvements were made with IMAP and other email transports in mind. We’re currently working on IMAP and hope to provide IMAP support in a future 5.x release. We’ll post updates here.
5.0 features a number of significant feature improvements like the new one-click filing and suggestion system, but there’s a lot more to come in ClearContext v5. Version 5.1 is focused on enhancing the project management capabilities and dashboard. It will include a new dashboard design and lots of new task and project management features. Version 5.2 is about making automated message processing much smarter and will include a lot of improvements to AutoAssign and related features.
We’re including both 5.1 and 5.2 for users who purchase the $50 upgrade to v5.0 now – we’re confident that these improvements will provide a huge amount of value for all of our users, even if you’re not going to be taking advantage of capabilities like multi-machine support. Hopefully this makes your choice a lot less tough!
As far as v4 goes, we’re still supporting that release, but don’t plan to make any feature enhancements to that version.
Posted by deva on December 24th, 2009.
I too don’t see the big value in this update.
The thing touted the most is this:
“5.0 features a number of significant feature improvements like the new one-click filing and suggestion system.”
I don’t see how this is any different than the current v4 “File Msg” button.
Seems like a steep upgrade cost for little new features plus lost features, and I just can’t justify it at this point.
Posted by Chris on December 30th, 2009.
[…] posted a list of changes in v5 on the upgrade page, along with a little more detail in this blog post. We’ve also (mostly) updated the User […]
Posted by ClearContext v4 to v5 Upgrade Guide | ClearContext Corporate Blog on January 4th, 2010.
Chris:
If you give v5 a try, I believe you will find the new one-click filing method to be a great improvement over v4.
Check this post for a list of additional v5.0 enhancements along with a glimpse of what’s coming in future v5 releases:
http://blog.clearcontext.com/2009/12/clearcontext-v4-to-v5-upgrade-guide.html
v5.0 upgraders will receive complimentary upgrades to v5.1 and v5.2 as well.
Thanks for your feedback.
Posted by brad on January 4th, 2010.
We love ClearContext, but I have to agree the upgrade cost is extreme. As much as I personally would like to upgrade, there’s no way my company will approve the cost when we just bought it 5 months ago. (Especially when we still run Outlook 2003 and not all of the features work as they would in 2007!) We too are not interested in multi-machine versions. Only new features should cost…not new functionality of what’s already there.
Posted by Tracy on February 2nd, 2010.
Tracy:
Everyone who purchased v4 after August 1, 2009 received a complimentary upgrade to v5. If you purchased in the last five months you should have received an email with your complimentary upgrade key in early December. You can look up your registration key here:
http://www.clearcontext.com/faq.html#reg_lookup
Thanks for the feedback.
Posted by brad on February 2nd, 2010.