Finally adopted Outlook

It is good to have some kind of relationship with the big manufacturers, in this case Microsoft. I tested the beta release of Office 2010 for a few months. It has -obviously- many improvements over the previous versions and I just knew I would upgrade as soon as I could.

Well, I downloaded the latest version (2010) within minutes of it being posted on the Web. I immediately started using Word, Excel and PowerPoint to continue to appreciate the many new features and nicer interface views and more intuitive menus and icons.

The MS-Office department has always been the best at designing, releasing and maintaining their products. It might have something to do with the fact that Office was not designed by MS from the ground up: most of the products were acquired from different companies and integrated in a suite. It might also have to do with the fact the latest versions of Office were architected by Ray Ozzie… independently of the reason, the Office dept. at Microsoft, simply, rocks.

However, I’ve been somehow skeptical regarding Outlook. All the problems of the past related to corrupted files, limitations on the size of data files; sluggishness and duplication of messages… et cetera, et cetera have somehow frightened me away from it.

So, I’ve used for a long time a combination of Eudora (15 years), Lotus Notes (11), Thunderbird (3) and Evolution (2); mainly and interchangeably depending on location, machine being used and intention.
However, Eudora was killed by Qualcomm 4 years ago, and although some enthusiasts decided to take over the task of creating a Thunderbird-based next version (8), it has been a long time waiting for the final release to substitute my old good Eudora v7.1.

Lotus Notes has been my preferred Calendaring, To-do, Tasks and Contacts manager. The email portion of it has left me wishing for a good release soon, to no avail. The interface takes ages to be changed to something more eye-candy-like, and although the functionality of the program is incredibly good, Lotus Notes is still targeting the corporations only. (I won’t mention Domino: a decade ago most of us IT pros knew what it was, now on hearing the word we all think of the game, or relate it to a pizza chain.)

Evolution and Thunderbird are both very good, but only as POP and IMAP based email programs.

All of these are still 32-bit based applications.

So, I took the plunge: decided to simply start using Outlook and that was it. Well… I obviously have been using it from time to time, mainly to help people that use the program on a daily basis. So I knew and know its intricacies and all; just that after the 2007 release I was sure the next version would simply be very good.

So, there you have it: I’ve said it. I’ve done it. It’s official. I adopted Microsoft’s Outlook 2010 64-bit version as of yesterday: April 22nd, 2010.

Next time you receive an email message from me you can check –if not from my Blackberry- it was crafted using Outlook.

I hate Outlook

Well... I like it when I use it myself. But hate it when I or any of my peers needs to troubleshoot a client problem.

I do not really hate it now. I did before the 2003 edition, this one was ‘alright’ and presented a very useful interface and set of features. The most recent one is even more capable and useful than its predecessors, obviously; and most of its hidden features still lay dormant waiting to be discovered by most of us.

MS-Outlook is the most ubiquitous email program there is on businesses Windows computers: Although the 98 and previous versions seem to have disappeared entirely; I've seen 2000 editions, 2002 (XP), 2003 and up to version 2007. Outlook 2003 seems to be the most predominant version used nowadays.
Even so, most users do not know the real capabilities of the program. Most of us simply use it as a very basic email tool, and although we manage to quasi-configure it for our likes, or are able to change the main signature and a few other minor tweaks; less than 20% of its capabilities are put to work on an everyday basis.
From the technological behind-the-scenes point of view, there are so many items in the wish list and unanswered questions. Among them:
+ How come Microsoft did not make the installer for 2003 and mainly for 2007 convert the old PST file format version to the new at install/upgrade time?
+ How come it does not compress the files automatically?
+ Why it does not backup the files automatically?
+ How come the ribbon is only present when creating a new item and not on the main interface?
+ Why do we always have to have the main file open and it becomes kind of cumbersome to switch to a different file; if we so wish?

Although I use a couple of different product for my email; I’ve started to like Outlook for the other features such as calendar, to-do tasks, contact and mainly because of all the plug-ins and add-ons capable of taking advantage of Outlook. Needless to say, synchronizing to a Domino or Exchange server makes it even more powerful.
I’m eager to see the 2010 version which surely addresses most of these questions and wish list items (according to MS people, the 1st beta is “around the corner”).
Will this version convert me to an avid Outlook user? It depends: the price is still bloated and I’m used and very comfortable with the other products I use for email, contacts and calendar.

So, let’s see. The, umh, outlook for Outlook 2010 seems promising.