ClearContext Corporate Blog

Happy New Year from the ClearContext team!  Thanks so much to everyone who has upgraded to v5!

There are a number of big changes in ClearContext v5. This post provides information about these changes, links to relevant forum discussions, and a little bit about what we’re working on now.  We hope this will post will answer your questions about v5 and help you get the most out of the software.

We’ve 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 Guide.

Key changes in v5

• Multi-machine support – if you run Outlook on multiple machines, you can now run ClearContext on all of them at the same time!
• Multi-mail file support – you can now file to as many different Outlook mail files as you want – see point 7
• 2010 Support – v5.0 provides provisional support for the Outlook 2010 x86 beta. We’re working on 64-bit support.
• One-click filing and suggestions – redesigned filing buttons, selector box, and suggestions
• Smarter threading – v5 takes advantage of Outlook’s conversation ID where available to more accurately connect related messages
• Message Prioritization – Known and important messages are now marked with “CC OK” or “CC VIP” categories. Set ClearContext >Options >Configuration to use icons or flags for prioritization.
• Contact Prioritization – Click the Mark Important button on contact records to highlight emails from that person as important.
• Views – Outlook color categories now take the place of the old ClearContext inbox views, but we’ve provided 3 color-coded inbox views for people who prefer them.  See this forum thread for discussion and to offer suggestions on specific ways you’d like to have v5 organize and display your email.
• Options – some options in v5 can be configured to work more like v4 if that’s better suited for your personal workflow. Details here.

Coming in v5.1 and v5.2

Some v4 features are being redesigned for v5 and will be in later 5.x releases.

• FolderContext – The Project Dashboard displays all information that was in the v4 FolderContext.  This functionality will be redesigned for the 5.1 release.
• Delete upon reply – we’re planning to add this feature to v5.1.  Please add any thoughts/suggestions about how you’d like it to work in this forum thread.
• File topic – we’re planning to add this feature to v5.1.  Please add any thoughts/suggestions about how you’d like it to work in this forum thread.
• Notification Managers – Existing Notification Managers will still function, but you can’t edit or create new ones in v5.0.  This functionality is being redesigned to be more powerful and easier to use along with AutoAssign for v5.2.
• Alerts –  v5.0 does not include Alerts.  This functionality is being redesigned along with Notification Managers and AutoAssign for v5.2.
• IMAP – We are currently working on IMAP support and will post an update on progress prior to 5.1 release.  We hope to have some level of IMAP support in 5.1, but we won’t know for certain until we get deeper into testing.
• Office 2010 x64 – similar to IMAP, we hope to support this in 5.1, but we won’t know for certain until we get deeper into testing.

As we’ve written previously, v5.1 will be focused on improved project management and dashboard capabilities, with a new flexible project dashboard UI integrated even more tightly into Outlook.  And v5.2 will focus on comprehensive automated filing to process your newsletters, notifications, and other bulk email with quick setup and reporting capabilities

We’re very excited about v5 and look forward to all your feedback to help make our upcoming releases as close to perfect as possible!  Thanks!