Updated licensing is needed for users of v5 or earlier, and a discounted upgrade license is available here. Connect members should visit their Connect status page to obtain their v6 license.

For those that have already installed the Release Candidate (RC), updating your software is not necessary, as the released version is the same as the RC.

Thanks to all for their interest in v6, and especially our Connect members for their help and feedback during the beta period. We hope that ClearContext Professional v6 will help you become more productive than ever!

We have download links and additional information on our new release page.

Before Version 6 is released publicly, we do have some work to do on updating the documentation and ClearContext web site. However, we will open up access to anyone interested in trying v6 in the next week or so.

As a reminder to our Connect members, for access, please register on our online forums using the same email address associated with your Connect account. Once registered and logged in, you will see the private Connect forums where the v6 Release Candidate can be downloaded.

Also, version 6 requires new license keys and the existing v5 license keys cannot be used with v6. Connect members can claim their new v6 license keys by visiting their Connect status page.

Thanks to everyone for their interest and enthusiasm, and we look forward to making ClearContext Professional Version 6 available to all shortly!

Some highlights on Beta 2 improvements include:

• Dashboard: Inactive Projects filter, user interface improvements, performance fixes
• AutoFile: configurable mail file location, revised rule creation window
• Project Selector: improved handling of long names, auto increase of window height according to number of suggestions, warning before filing to deleted Project folders
• Outlook 2010 Ribbon: toolbar optimization, customization and keyboard shortcuts
• Followup/Defer: addition of quick hours selection UI

A more complete change list is available in the Connect forums. For information on overall v6 changes, please see our prior blog posts.

With the completion of beta 2, the next milestone for v6 is the production ready Release Candidate. As the focus is now primarily on testing and critical bug fixes, we anticipate a much shorter amount of time to finish the Release Candidate as compared to the Beta releases. The completion of v6 is drawing near and we thank everyone for their enthusiasm and patience.

As a reminder to our Connect members, for beta access, please register on our online forums using the same email address associated with your Connect account. Once registered and logged in, you will see the private Connect forums where the beta can be downloaded.

To participate in the beta program a Connect membership and a registration to the ClearContext online forums is required.

Private Connect forums have been created that are visible and accessible only to Connect members. Beta information, downloads and discussion will take place in these private forums. Access to these forums is granted automatically based on a matching email address between a Connect subscription and the email address used to register on the forums. If assistance is needed in enabling the private Connect forums for your user account, please contact us at support at clearcontext.com

• Refreshed and streamlined user interface for ClearContext windows and toolbars
• Inbox and sent mail processing for multiple email accounts. Prioritization and automated actions such as AutoFile will now be supported in multiple mail files.
• Unicode support to properly handle multi-byte languages
• Performance improvements for Project selection to support thousands of entries
• Dynamic creation of ClearContext folders so they do not appear if unused
• Addition of Google Apps to supported configurations
• Addition of “Window 8” to supported configuration
• Other enhancements for multiple mail file support and configuration

In addition to these highlights, ClearContext v6 will also incorporate many other tweaks and enhancements to improve usability or address known issues. Some of these come from our own lists and planning, and many will come from feedback during testing from our Connect members.

As we mentioned previously, access to the v6 beta will be an exclusive benefit for Connect members. If you would like to check your membership status, please visit our Connect Subscription Status page. Also, you should be receiving a special offer in your inbox if you need to subscribe to or renew Connect. If you do not receive this email, please send an email to sales@clearcontext.com and we would be happy to add you to the mailing list.

We’ve received inquiries asking about what specific changes have been incorporated into these maintenance releases. As we transition into v6 development, we thought it would be a good time to do a wrap-up of these changes in the v5.4 maintenance releases:

V5.4.5

• Automatically detect a loss of connection to Public Folders and attempt to restore the connection
• Use different icons in the Project selector for Public Folders to better distinguish them from local folders
• More effective deletion of Project suggestions from the Edit Suggestions function

V5.4.4

• Fix a stability issue when using Word as an editor for composing emails in Outlook 2003
• Prevent a rare problem of a loss of connection to the suggestion database in Outlook 2010 while running
• Filter out disabled AutoFile Groups in the AutoFile create rule window
• Adjust Windows XP Theme detection to prevent UI color mismatches in certain environments
• Translate Exchange addresses to more readable email addresses when creating Tasks/Appointments from messages
• Fix crash when contact support button is pressed on severe error dialog before the application is initialized

V5.4.3

• Fix issue where categories are not saved in task creation from Dashboard when Project to category synchronization is disabled

V5.4.2

• Fix issue with suggestions database where version was not being incremented

V5.4.1

• Fix stability issue with loading recurring Appointments from the MessageContext
• Set defaults for Dashboard in the TWC version
• Allow selection of !next category in Organizer review

The latest version of ClearContext is always available by downloading from clearcontext.com.

Along with these infrastructural changes, the other main goal of the v6 release is redesigning a number of features to make them more efficient and useful. To do the best job possible at incorporating feedback from our users, we will be handling the beta and pre-release development a bit differently from prior beta cycles. Beta participation will be limited exclusively to Connect members, and the beta program will be more focused on addressing user feedback.

As a reminder, Connect is our yearly subscription program for free upgrades, priority support and access to pre-release software. Before we begin beta testing of v6, we will provide opportunities for those who are not members or whose memberships have lapsed to join Connect.

Stay tuned over the coming weeks for additional information on ClearContext v6. We look forward to kicking off the beta program soon and having you involved in developing the next version of ClearContext!

“My strong encouragement to use next actions in your MYN Now-Tasks list (see Lesson 6 in my Outlook book) is about the extent of the obvious overlap between MYN and GTD. MYN’s unique approach to task management is otherwise a quite different system. But they can easily be used together and so you can get the best of both. If you are a GTD user and are looking for more ways to integrate MYN with GTD, here are some ideas on how to do that.”

For more information on MYN and ClearContext, see our TWC partner page.  Download our free Outlook GTD setup guide here.

“ClearContext Personal… actually works in a similar manner to Smart Labels, filing unimportant emails, like social network notifications, newsletters, e-commerce emails and other bacn into categorized groups, taking it out of your inbox. It’s all done completely automatically, with no need to set up complex inbox rules.”

If you’re looking for a free Outlook-based alternative to Gmail’s Smart Labels, give ClearContext Personal a run.