I'm just starting to use BCM as more than a glorified address book and calendar.  I'm stuck on how to use accounts versus how to use categories.  I'm used to ACT!, where there was a hierarchical groups and subgroups structure.  I agree that a hierarchical view is NOT the way to look at and organize 21st Century business--I get that.  But I'm not sure what the relative functions of accounts and categories should be in my case.  I don't have accounts in the traditional sense--big companies who I interact with as customers or prospects or suppliers or whatever.  I actually am involved in several businesses.

I am a real estate investor, doing marketing mailings to various types of seller lists--new Notice of Defaults, post bankruptcies, probates, out-of-town owners, free-and-clear owners, etc.  I also need to maintain buyer lists, and to keep track of resources--real estate agents, mortgage brokers, various types of repair services.

I am a writer.  I need to keep track of the people and organizations who buy my services; my sources of information; fellow members of various writers' groups I participate in; etc.

I am in the travel business.  I need to keep track of travel vendors, potential customers, target affinity groups, etc., and manage marketing mailings.

SO....how should I use categories, and how should I use accounts?  Is there a white paper or the like out there that covers this?  I have read Lon Orenstein's Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager for Dummies cover to cover, and he makes some suggestions, but the examples don't fit what I'm dealing with (which, admittedly, is not very typical).

Any advice or information sources would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

I think I get it, at least conceptually.  But when I tried to create some search folders, I couldn't.  I got the New Search Folder box, and I named the folder and selected the item type, and then clicked on the Filters button.  I got a "boing" noise and the message, "Business Contact Manager for Outlook could not complete your last action or actions.  Please try again."  I tried different names and different item types, with the same result.  In your book on page 246, you say, "you can't add, delete, rename, or customize the folders in an offline database.  You have to create these folders on the server, not the remote database."  I'm not using BCM in a server configuration at this point; I have it on my desktop and on my laptop.  It's part of Office 2007 Small Business Edition.  Are search folders missing from this version?  I really need something for subgroups, or I'm going to end up with WAY too many categories!  Thanks.

This keeps getting curiouser and curiouser....I ran the database error check as you suggested, but the problem persists.  So I created a new database, put some contacts in it, and then tried to create a new search folder.  Now I am getting a completely different New Search Folder Dialog Box.  Instead of the one on p. 247 of your book, I am getting a longer box that is all about e-mail.  Under "New Search Folder," it says "Select A Search Folder:" and then has a list of headings--Reading Mail; Mail from People and Lists; Organizing Mail; and Custom.  Each heading has its own list of items.  The problem with this different dialog box is that there is no place to select the type of item you want to organize--e-mail vs. business contacts.  I want to organize business contacts, not e-mail.  Any idea what is going on?  Why are there two separate Create New Search Folder dialog boxes?  Thanks!

Hi Lon:

Yes, I tried creating a new BCM database. Same thing happened. I've left messages all over any Microsoft support forum I can find, but no one has responded. If I ever get an answer and find out what is wrong, I'll let you know. Thanks for all your efforts--I really appreciate it. Happy Holidays!!

Just wanted to let you know what happened with MS support. I went back and forth for a week or so via email with one of their guys, and he finally gave up and referred me to MS telephone support. Today, I spent a total of THREE (count 'em) hours on the phone wiht them. The first guy was getting really frustrated, and finally put me on hold while he consulted with someone. Then he cut me off--inadvertently, I assume--and didn't call me back. So I called back in and got a much smarter guy. After quickly checking things the first guy had spent hours stumbling through, he decided that my software was probably corrupted, and he reinstalled BCM. That didn't work. Then he decided that maybe Microsoft Framework.net was corrupted, and he reinstalled that. That didn't work. Then he decided my data itself must be corrupted, so he washed it through a spreadsheet and re-imported it. I was very skeptical that everything, including notes I had entered in the Details area, would be preserved in this process, but as far as I can tell, it was. I had been using ACT! for years, and was getting increasingly frustrated with it. It was slow and crashed a lot, but also it seemed to be very rigidly structured. I got the feeling that it had been first created as a hierarchical database, and then adapted (mal-adapted?) to a relational framework after it was clear the SQL Server was taking over the world. Anyway, I upgraded to ACT! 9 in one last effort to make ACT! work, and then gave up and moved to BCM about a year and a half ago. The migration process went fine EXCEPT--the contacts that had been created in ACT! in the last few months didn't migrate. I went back and forth with you and some other people at the time, but the issue was never resolved, and I finally ended up moving the remaining contact records manually. (Fortunately I type really fast!!) So clearly, there was something wrong with the ACT! database I was migrating. And the Microsoft tech who solved the problem said he had helped a lot of customers move data from ACT 7 and 8 with no problem, but that migrating from ACT 9 could be difficult. That's the story. Oh--I didn't understand how the filter worked in search folders. I thought I could just say I want these 10 contacts in this search folder. But, of course, it doesn't work that way, and I can see why not. (Again, I was thinking hierarchically in terms of groups and subgroups instead of interrelated items.....) I'm going to have to tweak some fields (like using generic, standard Job Titles) in my contact data in order to use search folders effectively. And use the Area of Interest field (which I had been ignoring) with search folder filters in mind. Thanks again for all your help--you're the best!!