Hi all,

I've Googled myself into a stupor trying to find a way to do this ...
any ideas?

In an unsorted view, where the user has dragged items up and down (for
example, to prioritize Task items), is it possible to programmatically
obtain the order of the items in this manually-ordered view?

My objective is to represent this manual (dragged) order on my Palm
device. Dragging is easier and more intuitive than constantly changing
the Priority or PalmPriority field in the items. This is my strategy
(clunky, but could work):

1. I drag Task items up and down in an unsorted view, prioritizing my
Tasks. (Again, my goal is to use dragging rather than having to change
the Priority or PalmPriority field in Tasks.)

2. My code determines the order of Tasks in this view. (This is the
hard part!)

3. Since the Palm device Priority field can only contain values from 1
to 5, my code must then assign each Task a value of 1 to 5, based on
its position in the list. For example, if there are 100 Tasks, the top
25 items would be value 1, the next 25 value 2, etc.

4. My code then places this value (1-5) in the user-defined field
"PalmPriority."

5. When synchronizing Outlook to Palm device, I select the option to
use the Outlook "PalmPriority" UDF as the handheld's priority field.

This way, the manually-dragged order of Tasks is represented (although
not exactly) on my Palm device.

In order to make this happen, I have to get the order of the Tasks that
I have manually dragged into position in my unsorted view. This seems
to be a tall order! Any help, anyone?

Thanks very much,
Bruce Clemence

If it's possible at all to retrieve the order, it would have to be through a MAPI property, not the Outlook object model. Outlook Spy and MFCMAPI are the two tools you can use to investigate, comparing the properties on two different tasks that differ only by their creation date/time and their position in the order.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

"Clem" wrote in message ups.com...
Hi all,

I've Googled myself into a stupor trying to find a way to do this ...
any ideas?

In an unsorted view, where the user has dragged items up and down (for
example, to prioritize Task items), is it possible to programmatically
obtain the order of the items in this manually-ordered view?

My objective is to represent this manual (dragged) order on my Palm
device. Dragging is easier and more intuitive than constantly changing
the Priority or PalmPriority field in the items. This is my strategy
(clunky, but could work):

1. I drag Task items up and down in an unsorted view, prioritizing my
Tasks. (Again, my goal is to use dragging rather than having to change
the Priority or PalmPriority field in Tasks.)

2. My code determines the order of Tasks in this view. (This is the
hard part!)

3. Since the Palm device Priority field can only contain values from 1
to 5, my code must then assign each Task a value of 1 to 5, based on
its position in the list. For example, if there are 100 Tasks, the top
25 items would be value 1, the next 25 value 2, etc.

4. My code then places this value (1-5) in the user-defined field
"PalmPriority."

5. When synchronizing Outlook to Palm device, I select the option to
use the Outlook "PalmPriority" UDF as the handheld's priority field.

This way, the manually-dragged order of Tasks is represented (although
not exactly) on my Palm device.

In order to make this happen, I have to get the order of the Tasks that
I have manually dragged into position in my unsorted view. This seems
to be a tall order! Any help, anyone?

Thanks very much,
Bruce Clemence

Hi Sue - thanks, I will try this. BTW, your book on Outlook
programming is one that has stayed on my shelf as others come and go --
awesome book!

Bruce

Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
If it's possible at all to retrieve the order, it would have to be through a MAPI property, not the Outlook object model. Outlook Spy and MFCMAPI are the two tools you can use to investigate, comparing the properties on two different tasks that differ only by their creation date/time and their position in the order.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

"Clem" wrote in message ups.com...
Hi all,

I've Googled myself into a stupor trying to find a way to do this ...
any ideas?

In an unsorted view, where the user has dragged items up and down (for
example, to prioritize Task items), is it possible to programmatically
obtain the order of the items in this manually-ordered view?

My objective is to represent this manual (dragged) order on my Palm
device. Dragging is easier and more intuitive than constantly changing
the Priority or PalmPriority field in the items. This is my strategy
(clunky, but could work):

1. I drag Task items up and down in an unsorted view, prioritizing my
Tasks. (Again, my goal is to use dragging rather than having to change
the Priority or PalmPriority field in Tasks.)

2. My code determines the order of Tasks in this view. (This is the
hard part!)

3. Since the Palm device Priority field can only contain values from 1
to 5, my code must then assign each Task a value of 1 to 5, based on
its position in the list. For example, if there are 100 Tasks, the top
25 items would be value 1, the next 25 value 2, etc.

4. My code then places this value (1-5) in the user-defined field
"PalmPriority."

5. When synchronizing Outlook to Palm device, I select the option to
use the Outlook "PalmPriority" UDF as the handheld's priority field.

This way, the manually-dragged order of Tasks is represented (although
not exactly) on my Palm device.

In order to make this happen, I have to get the order of the Tasks that
I have manually dragged into position in my unsorted view. This seems
to be a tall order! Any help, anyone?

Thanks very much,
Bruce Clemence