More About Item Properties

More About Item Properties

Following is a list of the properties shared by all items in every Zoot database. For the sake of clarity, item properties appear inside angle brackets. Properties are built-in features of every Zoot item. Note that you can create your own custom fields also.

<Subject>
This property describes the content of an item and can be up to 60 characters in length.

<Body>
This property refers to the document associated with an item.

<Date Created>
This is the date the item was created (a.k.a. the Entry Date). This property is read-only and cannot be modified.

<Date Modified>
This is the date the item was last modified. This date property is used for synchronization purposes and is updated whenever any item property is modified. This property is read-only and cannot be modified.

<Document Modified>
This is the date the item document was last modified.

<Start Date>, <Due Date>, <Date Completed>
These date properties can be used for scheduling purposes and are common to all item types, though they are most often used for scheduling purposes in the Tasks and Calendar databases.

<Type>
This property registers the item type and determines the icon displayed when an item is shown in the Item Grid. The item type is an indication of the type of information an item is likely to hold. An item can have any one of the following item types: Task, Appointment, Contact, Mail, Journal, Memo, Hyperlink, Web Page, Atom, Safebox, File Import, File Link, Clipping, and Extract.

<Color>
This property determines the color of an item as it appears in the Item Grid. You can choose from a palette of twelve colors.

<Status>
This property registers the status of an ongoing activity and can be set to any of the following values:

Ignore

Follow-up

Reply Sent

Not Started

Started

Waiting

Deferred

Complete

<Priority>
This property registers the priority level of an item and can be set to any of the following values:

High

Normal

Low

<Read/Unread>
This property registers whether or not an item has been read. The property is applicable to all items in every database, but is most commonly used with the Mail database.

<Size>
The value of this property is the size of the item document in bytes. This property is read-only and cannot be modified.

<Block Rules>
This property can be set to true or false. If this property is set to true, the item will be immune to the machinations of all rules in your database. This property should be used with care, as it may lead to confusion if you forget that the property has been set (because rules will appear to "not work" for the item).

<Word Count>
Number of words the item document contains.

<Serial Number>
A unique number identifying the item.

<Template>
Indicates that the item is a template and will be available when you create an item based on a template.

<Read Only>
The item document is read-only and cannot be modified.

<Exclude File from Queries>
If this property is true and the item is a File Link, Zoot will not include the contents of the linked file in any rules or queries.

<Recurs>
The item is a recurring item.

<Reminder>
The date and time of the next reminder, if any.

<Has Shortcuts>
This property registers a Boolean value indicating whether or not an item has a collection of shortcuts associated with it.

<Shortcuts>
This property represents an item's shortcut collection.

Notes:

The properties <Busy Status>, <All Day Event>, <Auto Archive>, <Sensitivity> and <%Complete> are provided for compatibility with Microsoft Outlook.

In addition to the standard item properties, one may also consider both categories and folder assignments to be item properties.

You can create your own custom fields. Click the Smart button and choose New Delimited Column from the pop-up menu, or select Field Chooser and create your new field there.

Zoot also makes use of delimited fields. Delimited fields appear at the top of a document and must end in a colon. Examples of delimited fields are the From:, To: and Cc: fields typically found in e-mail messages. Zoot uses delimited fields extensively when synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook.