One of Microsoft Outlook’s great features is the ability to customize views. Sadly, the software doesn’t make all your choices obvious. As example, a reader recently complained that Outlook doesn’t provide a task view that hides future tasks. Although there isn’t a default view that met his purpose, it was easy to create a custom task view. The trick is to know where to look in Outlook.

By default, Outlook 2007 comes with 11 task views. These include:

• Simple List
• Detailed List
• Active List
• Next Seven Days
• Overdue Tasks
• By Category
• Assignment
• By Person Responsible
• Completed Tasks
• Task Timeline
• To-Do List

These task views are useful, but they may not be valuable for everyone. For example, my reader wanted a view to help him focus on what needs to be done now, not the next 7 days or all active tasks. To make his view, you could copy a view you like and add a Due Date time filter using the Advanced tab.

To Create A Custom Task View

Open a task view you like. In this example, I’ll use the Simple View as my model that contains Task Name and Due Date. However, I want to filter this view so only the boxed items show.

1. Go to any Outlook task view. I’d suggest one where you like the layout.

2. From the View menu, select Current view.

3. From the sub-menu select Define Views… at the list bottom.

4. In the Custom View Organizer, highlight the view you want as your basis.

5. Click the Copy button.

6. Provide a new name for this view such as “Current Focus”

7. Click OK.

8. In the Custom View dialog, click the Filter… button.

9. Click the Advanced tab.

10. Click the Field button.

11. Select Frequently-used-fields.

12. Select Due Date.

13. From the Condition: drop-down menu, select on or before.

14. In the Value: field type today.

15. Click the Add to List button.

16. Click OK twice.

Once you see all the data variables you can use to define your views, you’ll probably add more. As example, you might want to filter “completed” tasks from this view. Outlook is accommodating in this manner and allows you to have multiple conditions provided they don’t conflict with each other. You can also modify an existing view at any time.

One safeguard that Microsoft added is that for default views such as the 11 mentioned at the top of this article, you can always reset the view back to the original values. Simply, highlight the default view in the Custom View Organizer and click the Reset button. However, this option doesn’t apply to user created views. Instead, you have the option to delete the view.

Using SQL and Sharing Outlook Views

Another item you might review is the SQL tab. This can be useful if your view isn’t displaying the items you think it should. As you define your task view criteria using the Advanced tab, Outlook adds the appropriate SQL criteria. In the example below, you see the structure for one of my custom views:

Admittedly, the Microsoft schema is not intuitive but you can start to figure it out. If you feel adventurous, you can even edit the query by checking Edit these criteria directly all other tabs will be available. If you pursue this option, you might want use a copy of your view. Otherwise, it’s easy to click on one of the other tabs and lose your work.

One benefit of the SQL tab is you can copy the code and send it along to another friend or co-worker to use. They simply reverse the procedure by pasting your code into the SQL builder tab.

While Outlook has built a nice set of default views, they give you the ability to create your own custom views. Take a look at the criteria they provide and play around with the fields. If the item you want to filter isn’t there, maybe there is an option for defining what it is not. Often times, there is more than one way to get your desired result. It just takes a little experimenting.

Related Outlook Tutorial

• How to organize using Outlook categories