ClearContext Corporate Blog

We have released a minor update to v5.1 that addresses the following:

• Eliminated an issue that disables ClearContext when Outlook is opened as a background process
• Fixed MessageContext Tasks/Appointment count
• Improved threading/project assignment when sending messages with the same subject to SMTP recipients

If you are experiencing any of the above in v5.1, download and install from here.

Along with the v5.1 release, we have updated most of our online help.  We’ll be posting over the coming weeks.

With ClearContext, you’re just minutes away from automatically keeping all your email, tasks, and projects organized using the folders and filing system you already use!  These 4 simple steps will get you started – ClearContext will take care of the rest!  If you haven’t done so already, download and install ClearContext here.

1. File Messages to Suggested Folders

   ClearContext automatically suggests the right folders to file messages to based on your past email.  Click File Msg to file that folder or the down arrow to see more suggestions.

2. Clear Your Inbox

   
   Click Defer to move messages out of your Inbox for a specified time.  They will return to your Inbox, unread, at the time you choose.  Unsubscribe from unwanted email conversations.  Future messages in this thread will be moved to the Unsubscribed folder.

3. Create Tasks and Appointments
   
   
   Click Task and Schedule on the ClearContext toolbar to turn email into tasks or appointments.  If you haven’t assigned a project name to the email already, ClearContext will prompt you to select one.

4. Organize Tasks
   
   Click Organize Tasks in the Dashboard to easily organize all your tasks.  Select a bunch of overdue tasks in the Date tab to re-assign their due dates, then go to the Project tab and hit Assign Project to make tasks part of a project.
5. View Your Projects

   Now go to the ClearContext Dashboard sidebar in your inbox.  Select Active Projects to see a summary of your projects and upcoming tasks/appointments.  Click on a project name to switch to the Project Dashboard for detailed project information.

ClearContext learns where you file email from specific people and threads then automatically creates projects for those folders to keep all your project email, tasks, appointments, and notes organized.  Just follow the simple steps above and ClearContext will keep you on top of everything you need to get done in Outlook!

View a video demonstration of these concepts here.

This week we’re very excited to release the next major evolution of ClearContext.  We’ve always been focused on helping people take control of their inbox with simple and powerful email management tools.  With ClearContext v5.1, we’ve built on that to make it just as easy to stay on top of all your tasks and projects too.

What’s new in 5.1?

In ClearContext Pro v5.1, the ClearContext Dashboard window has been replaced with a sidebar inside the Outlook inbox that brings many task and project features to the forefront of the product.  For more extensive task management, we’ve also added a powerful Task Organizer to review and edit tasks in bulk.  Here’s a quick overview of the new Sidebar and Task Organizer functionality:

ClearContext Sidebar – Dashboard

• View the status of projects due now, active projects, or find any project
• Pin your most important projects for quick access to them
• Easily edit or create new tasks right in the sidebar
• View tasks filtered by date/category/priority/etc

ClearContext Sidebar – Project Tabs

• Jump to the associated email folder for any project
• Add free-form notes (for call logs, reminders, etc) to projects
• View and create/edit project tasks
• View associated files and contacts
• Easily move/rename projects

Task Organizer

• Launch from menu/toolbar or sidebar Manage Tasks buttons
• Change due dates on tasks in bulk
• Manage and view tasks by project, category, priority, etc
• Review completed or pending tasks
• When the ClearContext sidebar is closed, a Task Reminder window will pop up when you have several overdue tasks.

Here’s a clip of the new features in action:

We look forward to hearing your feedback on all of the new functionality so we can continue to make it even better for you!

Registered v5 customers can download v5.1 here.

New customers can purchase v5 here.  Registered ClearContext Pro v4 users can purchase an upgrade to v5 here.  Purchase now and you’ll also receive a free upgrade to our upcoming v5.2 release focused on comprehensive automated filing to process your newsletters, notifications, and other bulk email, plus even more task and project management features!

Congrats to the Office team for releasing Office 2010 to manufacturing!

ClearContext v5.0.2 fully supports Outlook 2010 RTM (32-bit).  We still plan to support the 64-bit Office 2010 release in the future.  In the meantime, note that Microsoft does not recommend using the 64-bit version unless you really need it:

“The recommendations for which edition of Office 2010 to install are as follows:

• If users in your organization depend on existing extensions to Office, such as ActiveX controls, third-party add-ins, in-house solutions built on previous versions of Office, or 32-bit versions of programs that interface directly with Office, we recommend that you install 32-bit Office 2010 (the default installation) on computers that are running both 32-bit and 64-bit supported Windows operating systems.
• If some users in your organization are Excel expert users who work with Excel spreadsheets that are larger than 2 gigabytes (GB), they can install the 64-bit edition of Office 2010. In addition, if you have in-house solution developers, we recommend that those developers have access to the 64-bit edition of Office 2010 so that they can test and update your in-house solutions on the 64-bit edition of Office 2010.

I do expect some minor tweaks to the ClearContext 2010 ribbon to come in the v5.1 release.  Watch the blog for future detail.

The Office 2010 team has posted comprehensive information regarding the 64-Bit release of Office, including details on who should install Office 2010 x64:

“If you’re trying to decide between 32-bit and 64-bit Office, you should ask yourself what your needs are. Are you an Excel power user working with huge amounts of data? Do you need to work with file sizes greater than 2 GB? If so, then you would benefit from 64-bit Office being able to utilize more memory. If not, we’re recommending 32-bit Office 2010 as the default installation on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows mainly due to compatibility with existing 32-bit controls, add-ins, and VBA.”

Additional detail:

“Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office are largely indistinguishable, except that 64-bit Office has a much higher memory capacity. As mentioned above, the extra memory capacity comes at the cost of some compatibility with existing extensions to Office, such as 32-bit versions of ActiveX Controls and some 3rd party add-ins, in addition to 32-bit versions of programs that interface directly with Office. New versions of these extensions will need to be obtained, and it will take some time for 64-bit compatible extensions to be made available.

For these reasons, we recommend running 32-bit Office 2010 even on 64-bit Windows operating systems for better compatibility. On 64-bit Windows, more applications and documents may be opened at once, and switching among them will be faster because the machine can have more physical memory for the processes to share. When the 64-bit ecosystem for Office is more mature, you’ll be able to easily migrate to 64-bit Office!”

In the near term, if you want to run ClearContext in Outlook 2010, you should install the 32-bit version of Office 2010.  For information on future ClearContext support for 2010 x64, see this forum post.

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!

We are pleased to announce that ClearContext v5 has been released to production!

ClearContext v5 is about making the things you do in email simpler, faster, and smarter.  You’ll fly through your email and project management thanks to advancements including:

• Smart one-click filing and suggestions to file messages and create projects faster than ever before
• A new prioritization system that highlights email from known senders and VIPs using categories, flags, or color-coded views
• Support for simultaneous multiple computer operation
• Preliminary support for Outlook 2010 beta users (x86 only – Office 2010 64 bit support pending)
• Improved high-performance, high-reliability infrastructure
• And of course all of ClearContext’s powerful task, schedule, and project dashboard capabilities!

Read more about v5 here.  We’ll have new videos and tutorials for v5 coming soon!

New customers can purchase v5 here.  Registered ClearContext Pro users can purchase an upgrade to v5 for here.  Purchase now and you’ll also receive free upgrades to these upcoming releases:

• v5.1 – improved project management and dashboard capabilities, with a new flexible project dashboard UI integrated even more tightly into Outlook
• v5.2 – comprehensive automated filing to process your newsletters, notifications, and other bulk email with express setup and reporting capabilities

Download ClearContext v5 today to get more done in Outlook than ever before!

The release candidate for ClearContext v5.0 is 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 forum.

Our official 5.0 production release will follow shortly, including updated user guide and other documentation and information on upgrading.   We’ll be making more in-depth posts about 5.0 features in the coming weeks, as well as letting you know about the new features planned for the 5.1 and 5.2 releases.  Stay tuned to the blog for all the latest info! 

ClearContext Connect Members: Installing v5 will start a 30-day v5 Professional trial.  You will be emailed your v5 Pro license shortly.

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.

In our post v5: Streamlined & Smarter we mentioned that we plan to limit the display of FolderContext to Project Dashboards, removing it from individual folders. Given recent feedback, we’d like to know how you use FolderContext. Please take the poll below and post any additional comments you would like to share. Thanks!

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