Official release of ClearContext 5.1 is right around the corner, but for those of you who can’t wait to check out the new features, the Release Candidate is now available for download. We’re very excited about the new task and project management capabilities in 5.1 and look forward to hearing your feedback!
Changes in v5.1
The ClearContext Dashboard window has been replaced with a sidebar that brings many task and project features to the forefront of the product. For more extensive task management needs, the new Task Organizer helps with reviewing and editing tasks in bulk.
Sidebar – The ClearContext sidebar consists of a status dashboard and a project tab with detailed project information.
Task Organizer – Change due dates on tasks in bulk; Manage and view tasks by project, category, priority, etc.
Email Management – File Project, Delete Original message on reply, file to single processed mail folder, and more.
Visit the download page for more product information and to download the 5.1 Release Candidate.
Posted by deva at 2:28 pm on June 25th, 2010.
Categories: Uncategorized.
“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.
As long time readers are aware, we are big fans of partner Michael Linenberger’s no-nonsense approach to email and task management. This week he has released a new productivity book, Master Your Workday Now! Michael’s new book outlines an approach for overcoming overwhelm and achieving your highest level goals. From www.masteryourworkday.com:
“Within minutes of picking up this book you will:
Get more done, more quickly (and then get home earlier)…
Eliminate overwhelm (because it’s impossible to accomplish the critical, big-picture tasks when you’re buried under an avalanche of ‘minutiae’)…
Develop hyper-focus, and concentrate on the task-at-hand (so you’re less prone to distraction from outside influences)…
Create, and master, a more productive life…
Have your day support your goals.
Restore much-needed sanity to your work life…
Instill order and sense to your daily tasks and e-mail …
“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.
As we continue to work on our Dashboard redesign, we have a couple of questions:
How often do you use the Outlook To-Do Bar?
Daily (51%, 52 Votes)
Rarely/Never (42%, 43 Votes)
Weekly (7%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 102
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Do you usually leave the Outlook To-Do Bar open or minimized?
Open (51%, 51 Votes)
Minimized/Closed (49%, 49 Votes)
Total Voters: 100
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We’d also like to hear any comments you have about what you find most useful about the To Do Bar, what other information you wish you could see in the To Do Bar, and what other tasks you wish you could accomplish from the To Do Bar. Please post any thoughts you have in the comments section below, thanks!
For those of your running Outlook 2010; the Outlook team has posted a patch to fix a message size bug in Outlook 2010. We haven’t noticed the issue here, but it must be a pretty nasty bug for MSFT to decide to release a patch to pre-release software. Details and a download here.
We’re always on the lookout for other products that also help people increase their productivity. Buzz Bruggeman and the team at ActiveWordshave released a new version of their product, which allows you to script just about anything in Windows so you can type words to do all sorts of actions with simple keyboard shortcuts. Their latest release includes a free version that lets you create up to 30 ActiveWords – and you can upgrade to their Plus version to create unlimited words. Lots of our users have taken advantage of this to create custom shortcuts for ClearContext and other applications. The ActiveWords/Freemium release is now available for everyone to download and check it out!
“What we don’t see clearly is that we do damage to our reputations and to our time management systems when we don’t manage individual habits. A bad habit that becomes a ritual can drag down our productivity, without our knowing it.”
“Taming email means training the senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves. What’s the best way to train everyone around you to better email habits? You guessed it: You go first. Set the example, be the role model. Demonstrate a policy for a month, and if people like it, ask them to start doing the same.”
Posted by brad at 4:43 pm on January 28th, 2010.
Categories: infomania, tips.
who can’t wait to check out the new features, the Release Candidate is now available for download. We’re very excited about the new task and project management capabilities in 5.1 and look forward to hearing your feedback!
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For those of your running Outlook 2010; the Outlook team has 
have released a new version of their product, which allows you to script just about anything in Windows so you can type words to do all sorts of actions with simple keyboard shortcuts. Their