Comments on: 67 Reasons that Outlook Sucks http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks wanderings and wonderings of stan james Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:31:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Petetm http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-10034 Petetm Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:44:01 +0000 #comment-10034 I'm just trying to figure out why you need a 3rd party tool/add-in to search your email. Yep, that Outlook is something else. The only thing worse is the Exchange backend. Now there's a disaster for you. I’m just trying to figure out why you need a 3rd party tool/add-in to search your email. Yep, that Outlook is something else. The only thing worse is the Exchange backend. Now there’s a disaster for you.

]]> By: John A. Davis http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-9733 John A. Davis Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:26:30 +0000 #comment-9733 I didn\'t even get to all the stuff that sucks. I went back to my Eudora 6.03.0. A lot faster, cleaner. I wish I could still buy Eudora 7 in paid mode. What was Qualcomm thinking making a webversion for Eudora 8? Someone has to make something as good as Eudora. It shouldn\'t be that hard. I didn\’t even get to all the stuff that sucks. I went back to my Eudora 6.03.0.
A lot faster, cleaner. I wish I could still buy Eudora 7 in paid mode. What was Qualcomm thinking making a webversion for Eudora 8? Someone has to make something as good as Eudora. It shouldn\’t be that hard.

]]> By: Chris http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-7218 Chris Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:36:12 +0000 #comment-7218 Completely spot-on assessment. If only Microsoft would learn a thing or two from this experience. Completely spot-on assessment. If only Microsoft would learn a thing or two from this experience.

]]> By: Geoff http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6888 Geoff Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:47:12 +0000 #comment-6888 Outlook is by far the worst, least productive, buggy, deadlocked, presumptively asinine, bloated, counter-intuitive, sack of sh*t software that I have ever had the misfortune of having to work with. Large corporation management whose IT services are populated by brainless MCSE monkeys that mandate this abject rubbish as a "business" tool, should be made to read a costed productivity comparison of even its worst-case competitor, e.g. unix mail, against which I am certain it would lose - before looking at any just about any other email client which are strides ahead of this turd. I cannot put the full contempt I have for MS Outlook 2007 into words, but I'm passing the stage of blood-boiling loathing (thanks for this outlet) ... towards complete ambivalence, take my paycheque and smile at the productivity-bypass these fools have foisted on us (and therefore, themselves.) Didn't get my email? Outlook. I didn't see your email? Outlook. Didn't get that confirmation on time? Outlook. Didn't look the way I asked you format it? Outlook. Didn't respond? Actually, I started to, but .... Outlook. And in most cases, I won't be lying. And in most cases, the criticism stops there because everybody knows you're right. That´s probably why it continues to exist, it is the ultimate CYA-enabler. Outlook is by far the worst, least productive, buggy, deadlocked, presumptively asinine, bloated, counter-intuitive, sack of sh*t software that I have ever had the misfortune of having to work with. Large corporation management whose IT services are populated by brainless MCSE monkeys that mandate this abject rubbish as a “business” tool, should be made to read a costed productivity comparison of even its worst-case competitor, e.g. unix mail, against which I am certain it would lose - before looking at any just about any other email client which are strides ahead of this turd. I cannot put the full contempt I have for MS Outlook 2007 into words, but I’m passing the stage of blood-boiling loathing (thanks for this outlet) … towards complete ambivalence, take my paycheque and smile at the productivity-bypass these fools have foisted on us (and therefore, themselves.)

Didn’t get my email? Outlook. I didn’t see your email? Outlook. Didn’t get that confirmation on time? Outlook. Didn’t look the way I asked you format it? Outlook. Didn’t respond? Actually, I started to, but …. Outlook.
And in most cases, I won’t be lying. And in most cases, the criticism stops there because everybody knows you’re right. That´s probably why it continues to exist, it is the ultimate CYA-enabler.

]]> By: Harry Nails http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6779 Harry Nails Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:06:03 +0000 #comment-6779 MORE ON CTRL+ENTER It sure is nice to have keyboard shortcuts. Better if you can customize then (which is not the case for Outlook, as already pointed out). Have it documented is a must. Teaching you on sensitive actions is an obligation! OK, on my previous reply you could say that I should have read the documentation before start using the software, like everyone else does... However, on a sensitive action like sending the message from a simple keyboard shortcut, which can very well happen unintentionally, the program MUST warn you the first couple of times about what that key combination does, and perhaps give you the option of turning it off (i.e., customize) or warning you everytime. MORE ON CTRL+ENTER

It sure is nice to have keyboard shortcuts. Better if you can customize then (which is not the case for Outlook, as already pointed out). Have it documented is a must. Teaching you on sensitive actions is an obligation!

OK, on my previous reply you could say that I should have read the documentation before start using the software, like everyone else does…

However, on a sensitive action like sending the message from a simple keyboard shortcut, which can very well happen unintentionally, the program MUST warn you the first couple of times about what that key combination does, and perhaps give you the option of turning it off (i.e., customize) or warning you everytime.

]]> By: Harry Nails http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6777 Harry Nails Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:39:53 +0000 #comment-6777 CTRL+ENTER, YOU'RE FIRED! Raise your hands who never gave a second thought on a point or reworked a sentence you actually wrote on an email message body to a supervisor, manager, etc, and then after you have corrected that you've thought: "Jeez, that was really stupid, I'm glad I haven't sent that yet." Now, if you accidentally hit Ctrl+Enter in Outlook (say, because you just switched from Microsoft Office Communicator, where Ctrl+Enter is used to add another line of text *without* sending it to other person), before you know it, your message will be on it's way to recipients. If that happens before your review or even complete your message, you might be in trouble or at least look like a moron, because Outlook will send your message without any warning whatsoever, not even a dialog... nothing! CTRL+ENTER, YOU’RE FIRED!

Raise your hands who never gave a second thought on a point or reworked a sentence you actually wrote on an email message body to a supervisor, manager, etc, and then after you have corrected that you’ve thought: “Jeez, that was really stupid, I’m glad I haven’t sent that yet.”

Now, if you accidentally hit Ctrl+Enter in Outlook (say, because you just switched from Microsoft Office Communicator, where Ctrl+Enter is used to add another line of text *without* sending it to other person), before you know it, your message will be on it’s way to recipients.

If that happens before your review or even complete your message, you might be in trouble or at least look like a moron, because Outlook will send your message without any warning whatsoever, not even a dialog… nothing!

]]> By: Anders http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6730 Anders Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:31:27 +0000 #comment-6730 Another one for the road regarding rules! I installed it. All default settings. Created a simple rule for every person that I mail frequently with so that incoming mail from that person will be moved to a folder with name "Firstname Lastname". The rules actually works fine. But the folder name (i.e. "Firstname Lastname") will not be displayed with bold text. It just sits there. So I Alt-Tab to Outlook checking if I got new mail. Nope, no bold folders. SUCKS! I have to MANUALLY select each folder to check new mail. I have like 20-30 folders right now. You get the idea! When I select the a folder (i.e. "Firstname Lastname") and I have new mail the folder will be displayed with bold font. What it comes down to is that I can't trust Outlook. I've missed replying to mails for days and even weeks until I discovered this. Every mail client of course have problems and even bugs and we can't of course assume that every mail client takes care of every demand everyone have. BUT, Outlook is one of the more crappy piece of software out there. Regardless when speaking of user friendliness, robustness (it crashes!) or footprint (it is a memory and cpu hog!) but most of all: IT IS REALLY, REALLY SLOW. I get around in my gmail in 10X the speed of Outlook. And that includes round-trips to servers, 100X more emails to search and handle and God know what more. Ah, that felt good! :) Another one for the road regarding rules! I installed it. All default settings. Created a simple rule for every person that I mail frequently with so that incoming mail from that person will be moved to a folder with name “Firstname Lastname”.

The rules actually works fine. But the folder name (i.e. “Firstname Lastname”) will not be displayed with bold text. It just sits there. So I Alt-Tab to Outlook checking if I got new mail. Nope, no bold folders. SUCKS!

I have to MANUALLY select each folder to check new mail. I have like 20-30 folders right now. You get the idea! When I select the a folder (i.e. “Firstname Lastname”) and I have new mail the folder will be displayed with bold font.

What it comes down to is that I can’t trust Outlook. I’ve missed replying to mails for days and even weeks until I discovered this.

Every mail client of course have problems and even bugs and we can’t of course assume that every mail client takes care of every demand everyone have. BUT, Outlook is one of the more crappy piece of software out there. Regardless when speaking of user friendliness, robustness (it crashes!) or footprint (it is a memory and cpu hog!) but most of all: IT IS REALLY, REALLY SLOW.
I get around in my gmail in 10X the speed of Outlook. And that includes round-trips to servers, 100X more emails to search and handle and God know what more.

Ah, that felt good! :)

]]> By: Woody http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6432 Woody Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:12:19 +0000 #comment-6432 Outlook 2007 has now totally crashed on me (again) and I can't do anything with it. Its truly making my life miserable and impacting my productivity - and I work for myself so this is critical. What do you recommend? i) Call tech support and hope they fix the problem ii) Go back to outlook express? But it no longer syncs with hotmail and I don't kno if it will work with my new MS Exchange email account. iii) Windows live mail? I tried about 8 months ago and the screen is almost impossible to read with my bad vision due to the fonts and ridiculous pastel color scheme. iv) I downloaded postbox but it crashed importing my mail - not a good start (at least they disclosed its still in beta) v) I tried T-bird briefly about 8 months ago but it wasn't as powerful as outlook express. What I really need is a program that has the speed, stability, and functionality of Outlook Express (including the 100% reliable non-indexed search feature) but that syncs with MS Exchange and ideally hotmail. I would pay $500 (if not more) for such a program. Outlook 2007 has now totally crashed on me (again) and I can’t do anything with it. Its truly making my life miserable and impacting my productivity - and I work for myself so this is critical. What do you recommend?

i) Call tech support and hope they fix the problem

ii) Go back to outlook express? But it no longer syncs with hotmail and I don’t kno if it will work with my new MS Exchange email account.

iii) Windows live mail? I tried about 8 months ago and the screen is almost impossible to read with my bad vision due to the fonts and ridiculous pastel color scheme.

iv) I downloaded postbox but it crashed importing my mail - not a good start (at least they disclosed its still in beta)

v) I tried T-bird briefly about 8 months ago but it wasn’t as powerful as outlook express.

What I really need is a program that has the speed, stability, and functionality of Outlook Express (including the 100% reliable non-indexed search feature) but that syncs with MS Exchange and ideally hotmail.

I would pay $500 (if not more) for such a program.

]]> By: Woody http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6408 Woody Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:33:32 +0000 #comment-6408 I must have tried outlook about half a dozen times in the last 10 years. Each time I quickly went back to Outlook Express which is by comparison a terrific piece of software. Since MS discontinued syncing Outlook Express with hotmail, I have tried outlook 2007 and just cannot get search to work. Lookeen doesn't work either. Anyone have any suggestions? I must have tried outlook about half a dozen times in the last 10 years. Each time I quickly went back to Outlook Express which is by comparison a terrific piece of software.

Since MS discontinued syncing Outlook Express with hotmail, I have tried outlook 2007 and just cannot get search to work. Lookeen doesn’t work either. Anyone have any suggestions?

]]> By: Gene http://wanderingstan.com/2008-02-01/67_reasons_that_outlook_sucks/comment-page-1#comment-6234 Gene Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:52:22 +0000 #comment-6234 Sent items vanish at random, deleting a "conversation" can result in cryptic errors (instead ctrl-click each msg and then press delete), search is still borked, the navigation pane was put together by an intern (or off-shore contractor), constant freezes, periodic crashes, don't even try to use the contact mgmt or you will go insane, rss reader is borked. And God help you if you want to import/export from other mail clients. Even if they are made by Microsoft. Is it time to short MSFT yet? Microsoft Movie Maker and Excel. Do they make anything else worth a damn? Sent items vanish at random, deleting a “conversation” can result in cryptic errors (instead ctrl-click each msg and then press delete), search is still borked, the navigation pane was put together by an intern (or off-shore contractor), constant freezes, periodic crashes, don’t even try to use the contact mgmt or you will go insane, rss reader is borked.

And God help you if you want to import/export from other mail clients. Even if they are made by Microsoft.

Is it time to short MSFT yet? Microsoft Movie Maker and Excel. Do they make anything else worth a damn?

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