Custom entries in Outlook Journal

Journal folder in Outlook is a place, where users can keep track of their actions - e-mails, phone calls, edited documents, tasks and many more. To keep that record, Journal provides us with the set of entry types, which are available on the drop-down list.

But what if a user want to add entry, which is not listed, ie. "home repairs"? Unfortunately, Outlook does not provide a tool to add extra entry types. Only way is to edit registry entries.

Warning: Registry is a very delicate part of Windows system, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system, therefore be sure that you have your registry backed up. Detailed information about backing up the registry can be found here.

Use the following steps to edit the registry:

1. Click the Start button, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Navigate to the key:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Outlook\Journaling (fig. 1.)

Fig. 1. Location of Journaling registry entry

Right click Journaling in the above key, point to New and click Key (fig. 2.)

Fig. 2. Key creation

Type a descriptive name for the key you would like to have as a Journal item (Fig. 3.).

Fig. 3. New entry name

3. Right-click on the newly created key, point to New and click String Value (fig. 4.).

Fig. 4. String Value creation

4. Click New Value 1 in the right pane of the Registry, press F2, type Description to rename the key, and then press ENTER (fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Key description changing

5. Double-click the newly created string value, type the name of the entry type you would like to have as a new Journal Item, and then click OK (fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Entry type name

6. Close the Registry Editor.

APPLIES TO
    * Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
    * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
    * Microsoft Outlook 98 Standard Edition
    * Microsoft Outlook 97 Standard Edition