ClearContext Corporate Blog

We have released v5.2.2 to improve the email statistics included in the daily digest.  Upgrade here.

We have released a minor update – v5.2.1 – with a few installer enhancements.  To update to the latest, download here.

Dave Johnson at BNET had this to say about ClearContext Personal:

“Here’s a tool that can help you take back control of your inbox, automatically, without setting up lots of rules or filters. The amazing thing? It actually works.”

Simon Mackie at Web Worker Daily writes:

“It automatically files unimportant emails, like social network notifications, newsletters, e-commerce emails, and other automated “bacn”, into categorized groups, taking it out of your inbox.”

For more information on the new release, see our announcement:

“ClearContext Personal makes that information easier to deal with by doing three things:

1. Automatically filing unimportant messages out of your inbox to deal with later
2. Creating a daily digest of all autofiled email, so you never lose any information
3. Highlighting email from important senders in your inbox without any confusing rules or training

In the contact analysis process performed during setup, ClearContext’s prioritization algorithm automatically identifies those contacts that you email the most and marks them as important. ClearContext uses this contact priority to highlight emails in the Inbox from your most valued contacts. Manually mark email important via the Mark Important button on the toolbar.

CC VIP

During initial setup, ClearContext analyzes email history to determine email addresses from which you send and receive the most email. Using this information, your VIP contacts are marked as important.  By default, email received from these contacts are marked with category CC VIP and color-coded red.  Manually mark/un-mark a message as a VIP using the Mark Important button.  This will automatically adjust the contact priority and future messages will reflect the change.

CC OK

All messages from known senders are marked with category CC OK and color-coded green.  These include messages from contacts that are in your address book – but not marked important – and messages from contacts that are not in your address book but are replying to conversations that you have already participated in.

Contact Priority

Also adjust priority via contact records.  Open the contact for an important sender and press Mark Important.  All future messages from this sender will be designated CC VIP.

Views

In Outlook 2007 and later, ClearContext color codes messages using Inbox category colors.  In Outlook 2003, ClearContext changes the font color to indicate priority.  To see font color coding in other versions of Outlook, select a ClearContext view from the Outlook view menu (View > Current View).  There are three views installed during setup:

• ClearContext By Date – messages ordered by received date
• ClearContext Threaded – messages grouped by conversation and ordered by date
• ClearContext Prioritized by Category – messages grouped by category

If you change options below, the views above may no longer color code by priority.

AutoFile automatically moves incoming "bacn" email – including newsletters, social networking notifications, shopping email, etc. – to categorized folders.  AutoFile comes pre-configured with filing rules for common automated email and is updated over time.  You can also create your own AutoFile rules.

AutoFile Rules

AutoFile Rules AutoFile comes pre-configured with filing rules for common senders of automated email. These rules are updated over time as ClearContext users idenitify new senders. Create your own custom AutoFile rules in one of two ways:

• Highlight a message and press the AutoFile button on the toolbar or select AutoFile from the ClearContext menu. In the dialog that appears, select the group you would like to file to. All messages in the current folder will be filed to the group you selected.  All future messages from that sender will be filed as well.
• Click and drag a message onto a filing group in the Sidebar. Select Move on the dialog.  As above, all current and future messages from this sender will be moved to the AutoFile filing group.

See below for AutoFile rule configuration options.

AutoFile Sidebar

The AutoFile tab on the ClearContext Sidebar provides a tool to view and manage these emails.

AutoFiled Messages

The top section of the AutoFile tab shows a count of all unread messages across all AutoFile groups:

• Click on Unread to view all AutoFiled, unread messages.
• Toggle the Filing Group view between All Groups and groups with Unread only via Options.
• Select Options > Rules and Settings to configure AutoFile.
• Select Options > New Filing Group to create a custom group for use with AutoFile.  This feature is available for Pro only.

Filing Groups

Open the AutoFile tab on the ClearContext Dashboard to see an unread count of messages filed by group (Shopping, Social, Travel, etc.).  From here:

• Click on a filing group to see unread, AutoFiled messages for that group.
• Double-click a filing group to open the folder that it moves messages to.
• Click the check mark on the filing group to mark all messages in the group as read.
• Right click a group to disable/enable filing to it.  Open View AutoFile Group Details from the right click menu to manage the filing rules for the individual group.

Unread Messages

The message list at the bottom of AutoFile tab shows all unread email for the chosen group.  Messages are grouped by sender.  You can act on individual messages via the Actions or right-click menus:

• Mark Read messages that you no longer wish to see in the list.
• Delete messages that you do not want to keep.
• Select Actions > Jump to Folder to open the folder that contains the current message.
• Select Stop Filing for messages that you no longer want to AutoFile.

AutoFile Options

Open ClearContext > Options > AutoFile to configure the service.  The following options are available:

• Enable AutoFile message filing turns AutoFile on/off.
• Create Daily Digest message in Inbox directs ClearContext to place a summary of all AutoFiled messages in the Inbox once/day.
• Check Allow automatic updating and sharing of rules to periodically download new AutoFile rules for automated senders.  When enabled, this will send the custom AutoFile rules that you create to ClearContext so that new bulk senders can be identified.
• Enable/Disable individual Filing Groups in the bottom half of the options dialog.
• Double-click a filing group or highlight and click Open Details to see the rules designated for the selected group.  Turn off individual rules from this dialog.
• Press Apply to Inbox to apply all currently enabled AutoFile rules to your Inbox.  This is especially useful after an AutoFile rule update.

Daily Digest

The Daily Digest is sent to your Inbox once/day and lists all messages filed over the last 24 hours.  Use this message to ensure that you don’t miss an important AutoFiled email.  Click on a filing group to jump to the folder that contains the filed messages.  The Daily Digest also provides some email usage and responsiveness statistics for the last 24 hours.  Disable the Daily Digest via ClearContext > Options > AutoFile.

Video Demo

Watch a demo of AutoFile on the ClearContext Personal Getting Started video:

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.