Outlook's Journal folder provides a place for users to keep track of a wide range of events, including phone calls, e-mail messages, documents, tasks, and even conversations around the water cooler.

Outlook provides a specific set of journal types that identify the event. When creating a new journal entry, choose the type from the Entry Type drop-down list. Not only does the entry type give you a means to help identify the journal entry, but it can also help organize the Journal folder because you can sort the folder by entry type.

Outlook doesn't provide a means within the Outlook interface to easily create custom journal entry types. However, you can create a custom entry type with a registry edit.

To create your own journal entry types, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Registry Editor.
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Outlook\Journaling.
  3. Right-click Journaling, and choose New | Key.
  4. Rename the new key with the entry type name, such as Doctor Visit.
  5. Right-click the key, and choose New | String Value.
  6. Rename the string value Description.
  7. Double-click the Description, and set its value to the text you want to appear in the Entry Types drop-down list, such as Doctor Visit.
  8. Close the Registry Editor.

You can easily share these custom entry types with others. Simply export the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Outlook\Journaling key to a file, and import the file on the other systems.

Note: Remember that editing the registry is risky, so make sure you have a verified backup before you begin.