How to Quickly Group Tasks by the Month of Start Date in Your Outlook

By default, there isn’t the “Month of Start Date” field for Outlook tasks. Therefore, if you want to group your tasks by the month of the start date, you should seek other means, like the method introduced in this article.

Outlook permits users to group tasks by the start date. However, since the tasks’ start dates are seldom on the same date, the task list will be divided into a lot of groups, which may look pretty mussy. Therefore, instead of “Start Date”, you may prefer to group tasks by the month of the start date. In this case, you can refer to the following means.

Quickly Group Tasks by the Month of Start Date

1. At the very outset, start your Outlook program.
2. Then, after entering Outlook, you need to press “Alt + F11” key buttons.
3. Next, you’ll get into the “Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications” window, in which you should access a module that is not in use.
4. Afterwards, copy the following VBA code into this module.

Sub AddStartMonthColumnToTasks()
    Dim objCurrentFolder As Outlook.Folder
    Dim objTask As Outlook.TaskItem
    Dim strYear As String
    Dim strMonth As String
    Dim objProperties As Outlook.UserProperties
    Dim objProperty As Outlook.UserProperty
    Dim strPropertyName As String
 
    Set objCurrentFolder = Outlook.Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
 
    If objCurrentFolder.Items.count > 0 Then
       For Each objTask In objCurrentFolder.Items
           strYear = Year(objTask.StartDate)
           strMonth = Month(objTask.StartDate)
 
           strPropertyName = "Start Month"
 
           Set objProperties = objTask.UserProperties
 
           Set objProperty = objProperties.Find(strPropertyName, True)
           If objProperty Is Nothing Then
              Set objProperty = objProperties.Add(strPropertyName, olText, True)
           End If
 
           objProperty.value = strMonth & "/" & strYear
           objTask.Save
       Next
    End If
End Sub

5. Later, you can minimize the current window.
6. Subsequently, turn to “Tasks” area and open a Task folder.
7. Then, press “Alt + F11” to return to the newly added macro.
8. Next, press F5 key button to trigger this macro.
9. After the macro finishes, there will be a “Start Month” field added to the tasks in this Task folder.
10. Now, you can close the “Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications” window.
11. After that, you ought to take the following steps to group tasks by the month of start date.

• Firstly, switch to “View” in “Tasks” area.
• Then, click on the “View Settings” button.
• Next, in the popup dialog box, click on the “Group By” button.
• Subsequently, in another dialog box, select “User-defined fields in folder” at the bottom.
• Later, choose “Start Month” from the drop down list of “Group items by”.
• Finally, click a series of “OK” until all dialog boxes are closed.

12. Eventually, after going back to the task list, you will see that all the tasks have been grouped by the month of their start date, like the screenshot below:

Safeguard Your Outlook Data

Owing to Outlook’s vulnerability, you have to beware of all potential risks around your Outlook data file and take some effective precautions. For instance, you have to back up your Outlook data on a regular basis. Also, in order to recover Outlook data in time, you have to get hold of a potent third party tool, such as DataNumen Outlook Repair. It can check the errors in your Outlook file, thereby getting back maximum Outlook data for you.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including corrupted sql and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com