FAQ
Answers to the most
Frequently Asked Questions:
Top Questions
Install Questions (also see "Troubleshooting"
below)
Un-Install Questions
Project / Task Questions
Troubleshooting
General
Top Questions
Q: How do I
start or run Foresight?
A: After starting Outlook, you can
start or run Foresight by clicking on either your Default Folder
(for example, "Personal Folders" or "Mailbox - Your Name"), or,
by clicking on the Outlook Today toolbar button - as shown
below.
- To display the Folder List, click on the
Go menu, then Folder List.
- To add the Outlook Today button to your
toolbar (which makes it quick and easy to get to Foresight):
For more information,
click here.
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Installation Questions
Q: How can I backup my Outlook data before
I install Foresight?
A:
Click here for instructions on how to backup your Outlook
data.
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Q: My installation says it failed. What should I
do now?
A: Attempt the install again after a
reboot. If that does not solve the issue, then click on
the "Copy support information to clipboard" button (shown
below), then, paste the information in the Description field of
a
Support Request.
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Q: I tried to install
Foresight, but received an error and the information copied to
the clipboard looks like the following:
installing 2007 pia -
phase 2
result of installer (phase 2) is [1603]
there was a problem installing 2007 pia, reboot and retry the
installation
A: Uninstall the Microsoft Office 2007
Primary Interop Assemblies using the Windows Control Panel, then
re-run the Foresight installation program.
For more information, see the section
regarding Microsoft Outlook 2007 with Business
Contact Manager below.
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Q: Will Foresight work
with Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003?
A: Yes! However, you must have both
Service Pack 3 for Outlook 2003 as well as the Business Contact
Manager update installed.
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Q: Will Foresight work
with Microsoft Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager?
A: Yes! However, due to a problem
with Microsoft's installation program for the Microsoft Office
2007 Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA), which both Foresight and
Business Contact Manager need and install, an extra step is
required.
You must uninstall the Microsoft Office 2007
PIA first before you attempt to install
Foresight after you have installed Business Contact Manager, or,
if you want to install Business Contact Manager after you have
installed Foresight.
UPDATE: Alternatively, you can use the
Foresight Installer "Advanced Setup Options" and simply choose
to continue installing Foresight even though the PIA install
fails. You do not need to uninstall the PIA.
Click here for more information about
"Advanced Setup Options" below.
To uninstall the Microsoft Office 2007 Primary
Interop Assemblies, use the Uninstall Programs (or Add / Remove
Programs) option in the Windows Control Panel. The Windows
Vista Uninstall Programs window is shown below.
After this un-installation, then installation
of either Foresight or Business Contact Manager, both programs
will run fine.
Note: If you install Business Contact
Manager after Foresight, the Business Contact Manager Setup
window may get covered up by Foresight. Simply click on
another Outlook module, like the Calendar, and Foresight will be
moved out of the way.
Note: Failure to perform the above
instructions before attempting to install Business Contact
Manager on top of Foresight will result in the following error:
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Q: Can Foresight be used with multiple
Outlook profiles?
A: Unfortunately, no. Foresight
must be attached to one default data store can cannot be
switched.
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Q: Can Foresight be used with the Oracle Connector / Oracle Collaboration Suite?
A: Unfortunately, no. The Oracle
Connector / Collaboration Suite does not allow for the creation
of sub-folders under the Outlook Task folder. Foresight
requires and creates an Outlook Tasks Folder under the Tasks
Folder to store Foresight Projects. Because the Connector
prevents this, Foresight will internally encounter an error and
fail to load.
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Q: (Note: though
it will not hurt anything, this should be run only as a last
resort.) I've installed all the components, as well
as Foresight, using the Foresight Installation Program, but,
Foresight will not run. What can I use to make sure
everything installed correctly?
A: You can run Peter Jausovec's Outlook Addin
Check (VSTO) by doing the following:
-
Click here to
install and run his program.
- If it will not install, then the
Foresight Installation Program was not successful. You
should try uninstalling and
reinstalling all Foresight components.
- Click on the Load Outlook Add-In button.
- Navigate to your Foresight installation
folder (normally C:\Program Files\Foresight\Foresight for
Outlook) and click on foresightOL.dll
Your results should look "all green" like the
screen below. If any of your results deviate from this,
please email a screen-shot of this to
support@FixYourToDoList.com.
When you are done, you can uninstall this
program using the Add / Remove Programs option inside of
Control Panel.
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Uninstall Questions
Q: I
need to, or want to uninstall ALL Foresight components; what
should I do?
A: First, you need to know that other
programs might be using the same components, or libraries, that
Foresight does and removing them can disable these other
programs. You should only uninstall these if (a)
you know for sure that these were installed by Foresight or (b)
you plan to immediately reinstall them.
Also, please make sure you read and follow the
note below regarding your Foresight data --
this is critical to make sure you do not loose any of your
Foresight data.
If you have read, understand and agree to all
of the above, you can remove all the components installed by
Foresight by going into Control Panel, then Add /
Remove Programs and uninstall the following items, in this
order:
- Foresight for Outlook
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for
Office Second Edition Runtime
- Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 Primary Interop
Assemblies
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Now, to reinstall all of these components,
simply run the Foresight Installation Program, which can be
obtained here.
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Project / Task Questions
Q: I have some tasks that are
miscellaneous type tasks and are not associated with a project.
How can I get these to appear in the Projects Widget?
A: In order for a task to appear in the
Projects Widget, it must be associated with a project.
Therefore, the best practice would be to create a "Miscellaneous
Project" in Foresight and assign these tasks to that project.
You can assign your miscellaneous tasks to this new project by
opening the task in Outlook (as you normally did before using
Foresight) and picking the "Miscellaneous Project" from the
Foresight Toolbar. Or, you can use the
Assign Tasks to Projects
window, which is especially useful if you need to assign many
tasks to this project.
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Q: I have entered
projects, and I have several tasks under each one.
However, only one task appears under each project in the
Projects Widget. Why?
A: This is the way Foresight is
designed. It displays the one next action you need to work
on for your top three projects (unless other projects have
overdue items, then more will display) - and keeps the rest out
of view to increase focus and reduce stress. See the
Projects Widget section in the User's Guide for more
information.
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Q: I have
entered projects, and I have tasks with due dates under each
one. However, nothing displays in the Project Widget.
Why?
A: If your task due dates are outside
the range of the "Show items coming due in next n days" setting
for the Project Widget, then they will not display until you are
within "n" days. Foresight is designed this way to keep
things out of view that don't need to be in view to reduce
stress. See the "Setup / Configuration" in the
Projects Widget section in the User's Guide for more
information.
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Troubleshooting Questions
Q: How can I enable
(or disable) the Foresight debug logging feature?
A: Easy! Because Windows, by
default, hides the folder that the Foresight configuration file
is stored in, it is easiest to search for it. Below are
the instructions on how to do such.
Microsoft Windows Vista
- Exit Outlook. (Required step!)
- Click on the Start button.
- Click on Search.
- Click on Advanced Search.
- Change the following three settings as
shown below:
- Click the Search button.
- Right-Click on the found FSConfig file
and click Edit.
- In the DebugMode section, change the
"False" to "True" (without the quotes) as shown below.
Microsoft Windows XP
- Exit Outlook. (Required step!)
- Click on the Start button.
- Click on Search.
- Click on All files and folders.
- Change the following three settings as
shown below:
- Click on the Search button.
- Right-Click on the found FSConfig file
and click Edit.
- In the DebugMode section, change the
"False" to "True" (without the quotes) as shown in the
Windows Vista section above.
- Close and save the file.
Locating the Debug File
Foresight will create the DebugInfo.txt file
the next time Outlook and Foresight are run. This is the
file you will need to send to technical support. To locate the debug file, perform the
same steps as above, searching for DebugInfo.txt instead of
fsconfig.xml.
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Q: What does
"Advanced Setup Options" do / How can I get more information out of
the Foresight installer?
A: Checking this option runs the
installer in "advanced mode," which does two things for you:
- It allows you to see the full
installation programs for all the components required by and
installed by the Foresight Installer.
- This allows you to see more detailed
information about any errors that are being encountered.
- It allows you to tell the installer to
continue, even if one of the components fails to install.
- Due to differences between versions
of Windows, as well as the components needed by
Foresight, you might be able to continue
the Foresight installer and successfully install
Foresight even though one of the components failed to
install.
- An example of this is the
Microsoft Primary Interop Assembly -- your computer
may have a version of this installed (for example,
by Microsoft Business Contact Manager)
which will cause Foresight's
installer to fail. You can continue past
this failure and successfully install Foresight.
- Note: It is critical that
you inform technical support of any components you
continue past if your Foresight installation fails.
When running the Foresight Installer in
"advanced mode," you need to accept all license agreements and
default settings.
Please send screen-shots of any error messages
you encounter to technical support.
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Q: A "Foresight
Configuration Error" window appeared, and, I appear to have lost my projects or my tasks are
not linked to my projects anymore.
A: If you received the "Foresight Configuration
Error" message, Foresight detected that your default Outlook
data file was changed. This can happen if you were using a
stand-alone PST file for your data file and added a Microsoft
Exchange account. It can also happen if you changed
settings in Windows Control Panel in the Mail section. If
one of these situations has happened and you want to continue
using the new Outlook data file (or Microsoft Exchange):
-
In Microsoft Outlook, click the
Go menu and then Folder List.
-
Find the Tasks Folder in
the second section of Folders in the list (this is
your old data file).
-
Click the "plus sign" (+) to the
left of the Tasks Folder.
-
Click on the FSProjects
folder.
-
Click once on the first project
in the list to the right.
-
Click on the Edit menu
and click on Select All.
-
Click on the Edit menu
and click on Move to Folder...
-
In the list, find the Tasks
folder in the first section of Folders (your new data
file) and click on the FSProjects folder.
-
Click Ok.
-
Repeat the above steps in a
similar fashion to move all of your Tasks from the old Tasks
folder (in the second section) to your new Tasks
folder (in the first section).
-
Exit Outlook
-
Click on the Start button
(or the Windows button in Windows Vista) and click on My
Computer (or Computer in Windows Vista).
-
Open (click or double click)
Local Disk (C:) and navigate to the C:\Documents and
Settings\<Your User Name>\Local Settings\Application Data\ForesightOL
(or if you use Windows Vista: User\<Your User
Name>\AppData\Local\ForesightOL folder.
-
Rename the FSItems file to
FSItems-bak
-
Rename the FSItems.xml.bak1 to
FSItems.xml
-
Run Outlook
-
Click on the Projects link in
the Foresight Project Widget and confirm that Foresight now
displays your projects.
-
Click on the Assign Tasks to
Projects toolbar button and re-assign your tasks to your
projects.
-
Foresight should be back in
working order.
If you did not want to use
the new Outlook data file:
-
Exit Outlook
-
Use the tools in Control Panel /
Mail to change your default Outlook data file back to your
original data file.
-
Click on the Start button
(or the Windows button in Windows Vista) and click on My
Computer (or Computer in Windows Vista).
-
Open (click or double click)
Local Disk (C:) and navigate to the C:\Documents and
Settings\<Your User Name>\Local Settings\Application Data\ForesightOL
(or if you use Windows Vista: User\<Your User Name>\AppData\Local\ForesightOL
folder.
-
Rename the FSItems file to
FSItems-bak
-
Rename the FSItems.xml.bak1 to
FSItems.xml
-
Run Outlook
-
Foresight should be back in
working order.
Being that there are some complex steps above,
please consult with your Information Technology professional or
department for assistance.
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General Questions
Q: How can I backup
my Foresight data?
A: To backup your Foresight data, make a copy of
all of the XML files in your Foresight data folder ... typically
something like C:\Documents and Settings\<Your User
Name>\Local Settings\Application Data\ForesightOL (or if you
use Windows Vista: User\<Your User Name>\AppData\Local\ForesightOL)
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