I'm using Outlook2003 to find contacts which belong to one or both of two
categories but NOT to a third category. I can't get it to return the correct
results. What's the syntax I should be using on each line of the Advanced
Find dialogue box?

I've tried this:

(Line 1) Categories contains "ABC1" or
(Line 2) Categories contains "ABC2" and
(Line 3) Categories does not contain "ABC3"

but (I think) it just gives me everyone that doesn't have ABC3 as their
category and ignores the other two criteria. I've tried combining these
criteria with/without a search criterion specified in the 'More Choices' tab
for Categories to no avail. I've tried leaving the quotes out or in. You can
see I don't really know what I'm doing, here... ;-) I'm sure I had
something similar working ok, way back in the mists of time, but I'm blowed
if I can recreate it now, when I need it...

I know I could just move copies of all Contacts to a separate temporary
Contacts subfolder and then sort them out by category grouping to end up with
just the ones I want, but it's bugging me I can't make the 'Find' facility
work as it presumably should.

You can't AND the same field together unless you do it within 1 line.

Try the Querybuilder -
http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2004/20040927.htm

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

Outlook Tips by email:
dailytips-subscribe-request@lists.outlooktips.net

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
EMO-NEWSLETTER-SUBSCRIBE-REQUEST@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

"browniebodrum" discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:042FB756-E1BD-40CB-AEB1-038FB5042CA2@microsoft.com...

Thanks - I'm nervous about doing anything that involves the registry, so
before I do take that step, can you just confirm whether it's possible to do
this query on one line WITHOUT using Query Builder:

'Categories' contains A and contains B but does not contain C

and how does it need to look/be composed in Advanced Find?

Having read the KB file, I know I can do this:

'Categories' contains A and contains B

but I'm not sure whether I can do the second part, i.e. it's possible, but
not working because but I'm just not getting the syntax right.

Thanks again.

I don't think you can do the NOT - I'll have to test it. But the
querybuilder is nothing to be nervous about - messing it up won't cause
outlook not to load.

Categories Contains A OR B, NOT C
Doesn't work - I have one that is in both B and C and its included. If its
written as
Categories contains A or B
Categories does not contain C
They are all OR'd together.

it works perfectly in querybuilder -
AND (all must be true)
- Categories contains A or B
- Categories doesn't contain C

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com

Outlook Tips by email:
dailytips-subscribe-request@lists.outlooktips.net

Sorry it's taken me so long to leave feedback, but I've now installed Query
Builder and it's helped me a great deal, it does just what I needed, so
thanks for the tip.

browniebodrum