Message Priority: Highlight Your Most Important Messages

When a new email is received, ClearContext automatically prioritizes message conversations based on several factors including sender, thread participation, directness of the email, etc..  Adjust message scoring on a case by case basis or change the weighting that ClearContext uses for each scoring parameter.

Manual Conversation Priority Adjustment

Change ClearContext's automatic scoring for individual message conversations via the ClearContext open message toolbars or the ClearContext Inbox menu item (ClearContext > Conversation Priority).  This changes the importance of the message and all current and future email within that message conversation. This will change the message's scoring and color-coding within the Inbox. 

By default, the Inbox toolbar does not include the drop down for priority assignment.  You can add it to the toolbar via toolbar customization.

Scoring Parameters

ClearContext uses a combination of several factors to analyze the importance of each individual email thread. The weighting of each of these factors is configurable via the Scoring Options dialog located at ClearContext > Options > Scoring Options. By adjusting these sliders, you can ensure that the messages that are most important to you appear at the top of your inbox. You can also adjust the timing of the scoring process to ensure that ClearContext does not conflict with other processes running within Outlook.

The ClearContext scoring algorithm analyzes each message as it is received and assesses a score based on the factors below. In italics, we have highlighted examples of the impact adjusting each of these sliders will have on received email.

• Known Addresses - ClearContext looks at the author of the email and assesses a score that is based on the sender's contact priority. If the most important indicator of email importance to you is the sender of the email, increase this slider to use contact priority as the primary factor in prioritizing email. This will typically apply to users who receive email from a large number of different correspondents.
• Message & Thread Priority - This weights the native Outlook priority assigned to a message. The more you increase this slider, the more impact receiving messages marked as high priority will have on the email's position in the inbox. Users who receive email from trusted sources with accurate priorities assigned should adjust this slider higher to ensure that the ClearContext message priority reflects the added importance of the message.
• Thread Participation - This factor is based on the number of responses the user has made within this email thread and whether or not the user is the originator of the thread. If you are a user who receives a high volume of informational email and your most important emails are typically the ones to which you reply, increase this weighting to ensure that email conversations that you are involved in receive higher priority.
• Message Directness - This score is based on whether the author’s name is included in the To: or CC: field and whether the message is addressed to the user only or to several recipients. If you are overwhelmed by CC:'d mail that does not require immediate attention, increase this score so that messages addressed directly to you with few other recipients receive high prominence in the inbox.
• Processing Delay - When Outlook receives a message, ClearContext analyzes it for scoring and topic assignment and attaches this information to the newly received email. If another process, such as another add-in or a PDA, changes the message at the same time, a message conflict may be generated. The Processing Delay slider allows you to change the scoring timing to avoid conflicts. The farther right you pull the slider, the longer ClearContext waits to process the message.