Getting more from Microsoft Outlook
This piece
is for people who use the web on desktops instead of mobile gadgets. There is
no doubt that the mobile revolution is at its peak, however for those who sit
in their offices almost all day long, the mobile device becomes a distraction
instead of a convenience. Imagine having an application that combines all
notifications from the social networks in one place for you or an application
that allows you to update your social network sites without actually opening a
website. ………Please stop imagining because there is an application like that. It
comes from the good old Microsoft Corporation. These days Microsoft has lost
the buzz it carried with it just about five years ago although they continue to
make fabulous applications. Among them is Microsoft Outlook.
Microsoft
Outlook has been around since the days of MS - DOS; it is a personal
information manager available as a standalone or part of the Microsoft Office
Suite. The main usage is in the area of email but it includes a calendar, task manager, contacts manager, note manager, a
journal and web browsing.
It also works with Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint Server which we
have to leave for the IT Pros to sort out. Outlook has a lot of Add-Ins that
enhance the features.
We will take
some of the features one by one and see what we can get from it.
EMAIL
The primary
function of the application, the email makes it possible to send and receive
mails offline. When an email is sent offline it is kept in the Outbox and sent
as soon as the PC goes online. What many don’t usually recognise is the User
Interface (UI). It has the same UI as all Microsoft Office applications and
makes it usage so easy. Personally I love the editing features because most
email applications don’t offer real time editing. I get to check my grammar and
spellings on the fly. Outlook can be configured to work with almost all email
applications. The popular ones like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Live and Hotmail have
simple integrations. However with Yahoo only the Yahoo Mail Plus is supported
although I have seen the free versions inexplicably get integrated twice in my
own eyes. The configuration has been made simple over the years. The earlier
versions of Outlook required users to enter port numbers and all that but the
Outlook 2007 and 2010 simply require one to enter the email address and the
password and the rest is done automatically by the application. So cool isn’t
it? The coolest thing about the mail is that if your email address is the one
you used to register on Facebook, your comments can be collected nicely in
folders for you to read them at your own convenience. Facebook even allows you
to reply to comments right from email in Outlook. One other functionality that
goes without notice is the ability to open emails and attachments such as PDFs
and Microsoft Office files right inside Outlook without launching any web
browser.
CALENDAR
Personally I
don’t use the calendar very much even though it is very powerful. I make all my
calendar entries on my phone and anytime I sync it with the PC I get to see it
there. The calendar is used as a reminder for appointments, birthdays and other
events. It has a timeline-like view which makes it very simple to understand.
This would be very useful for those who spend most of their time in the office.
The reminders are just perfect for those who have a lot of schedules in a day.
TASK
MANAGER
This is
somehow similar to the Calendar but with a twist. One can set up all sorts of
task with this feature. The exotic feature is the ability to accumulate flagged
emails over there. Sometimes you might want to flag an email so that you could
read it at a later date so the Task Manager will collect those mails for you to
make them easier for you to read.
CONTACTS
MANAGER
This is my
personal favourite. Ever thought of having a second repository of the contacts
on your phone? Well this is it. You can enter all your contacts’ information
right in Outlook and it is actually searchable. So for instance when you use
Windows Search or Spotlight to look for a name on your PC or Mac, the entries
in Outlook will be included. Please don’t be thinking about the odious task of
entering all your contacts’ details one by one because there is a very simple
way out. Many of the internet enabled phones have the sync feature so you just
have to configure it and all your contact will match on from your phone to the
PC. Phones like Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry and iPhone have their
own suite that makes it easy to sync with Outlook.
NOTE
MANAGER
Well, this
feature is always ignored because many don’t see the reason why they should
open Outlook anytime they want to make a small note. I agree with them too
especially when Sticky Note in Windows 7 has made ‘small’ note taking very
easy. However if you are the type who
takes notes with your phone a lot then this feature is right for you. You can
sync your notes on your phone in Outlook to serve as a backup. There are no
frills with the Note Manager to my knowledge as at now.
ADD
- INS
The
capabilities of Outlook are greatly maximised with the addition of Add-Ins. Add
–Ins are components you can add to applications to enhance their functionality.
Outlook has a ton of them lying around the internet. You can think of any
functionality for Outlook and chances are that there is an Add – In for it.
Sometime ago I asked myself if I could send and receive tweets from my Outlook
and the answer was a resounding yes. I found TwInbox from
www.techHit.com and for the past three years or so it has been wonderful. After
installation, the smartest thing to do is to create a container (folder) and
direct all your tweets in it because you wouldn’t want your tweets to mix up
with your regular emails. TwInbox allows you to do almost everything you can do
with the regular twitter on the web. You can tweet, retweet, send direct tweets
and even use #hash tags. Outlook can also display twitpic so that you wouldn’t
have to open the web browser. However the tweets that come with links will
definitely have to be opened in the web browser.
BOTTOM
LINE
One thing
about this application is that you need to use before you can make judgements.
I might not have been able to describe it properly for you to get the
experience but I bet you, the application is too powerful to ignore. Most
corporate environments use Outlook as their main email client so it will be
very easier for them to harness the other functionalities I have talked about
here.
Please feel
free to share your own experience about Outlook with us here on this blog. You
can add your comments or email me.
Kwesi Banson
Jnr
Twitter:
@pewla
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