|
Top 10 Annoyances?
A recent "Top 10 Outlook Annoyances" article
in ComputerWorld listed the author's top 10
annoyances and in my opinion, some of the
solutions weren't the best way to address
the problem. Several of the problems are
caused by add-ins, not Outlook.
1. Outlook is too darn slow
Yes, Outlook is too slow for some users.
There are a number of causes and
unfortunately, removing attachments to make
a 250 meg PST smaller isn't going to do much
to make it faster.
Outlook may be slow when it loads because
its checking the consistency of a PST or
OST. This happens because Outlook doesn't
close properly, and yes, a smaller PST will
help because its faster to check. But you'll
do better in the long run to figure out why
it's not closing properly and fixing the
cause - usually an add-in or application
(such as sync tools for handheld devices)
accessing Outlook data.
Users who upgraded to Outlook 2007 and kept
their profile and PST may experience
slowness. We recommend a new profile but it
may help to delete 4 files: Outcmd.dat,
Extend.dat, Frmcache.dat, and Views.dat.
Outlook 2007 will recreate these files as
needed. For more information see:
Outlook 2007 is very slow
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2007/slow.htm
RSS feeds (and Internet calendars) appear to
slow Outlook down because they begin
updating. This is especially true if you
subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds or a few
very busy feeds. Outlook is fine for limited
RSS feeds, but a dedicated RSS reader is
often better for large numbers of feeds.
Antivirus integration can causes issues,
from slowness to missing message to crashes
so we don't recommend scanning email for
viruses. Other add-ins can also cause
problems. Check your list (and disable them)
in Outlook 2007's Tools, Trust Center,
Add-ins dialog.
2. Attachments make Outlook massively bloated
Massively bloated? Hardly. Outlook can
easily handle a 1 GB PST, provided the file
doesn't need repaired every time you restart
Outlook. What will help Outlook feel faster
is keeping fewer messages in the Inbox. Move
messages to "completed" folders as you’re
finished with them. Or use the Rules Wizard
to sort messages into folders and use the
Unread mail folder to read them, just don’t
go nuts creating an elaborate folder system.
Keep it simple and use a limited number of
folders.
I don’t use a lot of rules to move messages
to folders, I prefer using Auto-Mate to move
messages to a "Completed" folder after I've
read them. I usually have between 500 and
1000 messages in my Inbox and Outlook is
very snappy.
If you really want to remove attachments
from messages, there are a number of
utilities available or you can roll your own
solution using VBA.
A list of utilities that do this (and more)
are available at
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/attachments.asp
Many of these utilities offer additional
features that make them cost effective for
anyone who needs to save attachments often.
Sample VBA code and instructions are at
http://www.outlook-tips.net/code/saveatt2.htm
Auto-Mate
http://www.pergenex.com/auto-mate/index.shtml
3. Outlook's data file is $#%^ hard to find
While it would be easier to backup the PST
if it were in My Documents, its not hard to
find. You can go straight to Data File
management (on Outlook's File menu) and
click on Open folder to open the default
folder location. Unless you moved the PSTs,
they will all be in this folder.
If you use Outlook 2000 or 2002, you won't
have Data File Management, but you can use a
userprofile command line in Windows 2000 or
XP and Outlook 2000 or 2002, to open the
folder:
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook
Paste it in the Start menu, Run command or
the address bar of Windows Explorer. It
works with Vista and Outlook 2003/2007 too,
if you need to access the PST location when
Outlook is closed.
If you just want to browse your hard drive
looking for the folder, you'll need to show
hidden files and folders in Windows.
Why isn't the PST in My Documents? Because
both PST and OST (offline files) are stored
in the same location. Corporate users with
roaming profiles sync their My Documents
folder with the network server and because
of file size issues, most sites don't want
OSTs synced with the server.
Outlook & Exchange/Windows Messaging Backup
and Dual-Boot
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.asp
Where Are My Files?
http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/filepath.htm
4. Searching, filtering and sorting are sub-par
While Find in older versions of Outlook
wasn't fast and often found the oldest
messages before newer ones, Outlook 2007's
Instant search is very good. The problem for
many users is that they file everything into
hundreds of folders then can't find
anything. Stop treating Outlook like a file
cabinet, with many subfolders Instead, use
more of Outlook's features, like views and
search folders to find things.
If you need more powerful searching, there
are several search tools available, from
Google Desktop Search to add-ins made
specifically for Outlook.
My preference is to keep all mail in my
Inbox until I mark it complete. Since
Outlook only runs rules as the messages
arrives, I use Auto-Mate to move the
completed messages later.
Auto-Mate
http://www.pergenex.com/auto-mate/index.shtml
Search Tools for Personal Use for search
tools.
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/search.asp
5. Outlook crashes constantly
If Outlook is crashing constantly, something
is wrong with your system. Always, always
send the crash reports to Microsoft when
asked. This will help them to identify and
fix problems, including problems with third
party add-ins. Outlook will disable add-ins
it identifies as a cause of crashes but it
can't always identify the problem add-in.
You should restart Outlook using the /safe
switch. This loads Outlook without add-ins
so you can verify the problem is with the
add-ins. Disable or uninstall add-ins you
don’t need. Run Detect and Repair (Outlook
2003) or Office Diagnostics (Outlook 2007).
6. Its .pst files get corrupted
Each time Outlook crashes it runs scanpst
automatically the next time you start
Outlook to check the consistency of the
file. This doesn't mean the PST is corrupt,
it just means Outlook is checking it and
fixing any problems it might find so it
doesn't become corrupt and result in data
loss.
One cause of this dialog is closing Outlook
while something is still accessing Outlook
data. This is often software that syncs
Outlook with handheld devices, but shutting
down Windows without closing Outlook may
also cause it, as will scanning the PST with
an antivirus scanner.
The solution? Close all utilities that are
using Outlook data and stop syncing before
you close Outlook.
A few years ago a popular Office author
frequently recommended making a new PST
every 6 months and importing the contents of
the old PST, to prevent corruption. This was
bad advice then and now. It also causes you
to lose hidden items, like custom forms.
Again, if the PST is corrupt, making a new
one is not the answer - you need to identify
the cause. Most often, its because Outlook
isn't closing properly. You can check this
by looking for outlook.exe in the Processes
tab of Task Manager. The most common cause
is a poorly written add-in.
OUTLOOK.EXE continues running after you exit
Outlook
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/close.asp
7. Duplicate entries appear out of the blue
Rarely does anything happen "out of the
blue". It's either a problem syncing with a
device or a problem talking to the mail
server. Quite a few people end up with
duplicates when they decide to import mail
from their archives, rather than just
opening the archive in Outlook.
My record for duplicate email was 99
messages each of some 2000 messages. Back in
the days of dialup, I had Outlook 2000 set
to check for new mail every 3 minutes and
left the office. The cause was two-fold: the
connection often dropped before Outlook sent
the QUIT command and I received a large
number of messages, which took longer than 3
minutes to download. Outlook kept trying to
restart the download before it marked
messages as previously downloaded.
Duplicate contacts were frequent in these
days too, thanks to my PDA and NetFolders.
If duplicates are a problem for you, there
are a number of utilities available that cam
identify and remove duplicates, many work on
all folders but a few are folder-specific.
See Duplicate Remover Tools for Microsoft
Outlook for a list (http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail_duplicates.asp).
8. Syncing Outlook on multiple PCs is tough
The ability to sync your data with two
computers or share it with others is a major
annoyance for many Outlook users. Exchange
server users have it easy - Exchange server
makes it easy to share Outlook data with
other users at your organization and view
your email and calendar on other computers.
As long as you have a web browser, you can
use OWA to view your mailbox.
POP3 users can leave mail on the server and
download it on each computer or move the PST
between computers but each method leaves a
lot to be desired. The best solution for
email, if your provider offers it, is an
IMAP account. With IMAP, messages stay on
the server and copies are stored Outlook. It
won’t help you with calendar or contact
sharing though.
If Exchange server is not in your cards
(hosted Exchange accounts are about $10 a
month) look for utilities that can make
sharing easier at:
Sharing Microsoft Outlook Calendar and
Contacts
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.asp
Synchronizing Outlook on Two Machines
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.asp
9. Recipients see e-mails with weird characters
There are occasional problems with font
encodings. It doesn't annoy me, because I
know email and understand it’s an imperfect
method of communication. You can spend hours
designing a perfectly formatted message in
Outlook, but it may look totally different
on my Blackberry, in OWA, Gmail or Yahoo
mail clients. Plain text isn't immune to
problems - you may use fixed width fonts and
I use proportional.
10. Outlook won't play nice with Gmail
It works fine for me using IMAP, but there
differences in how gmail works compared to
how traditional mail clients work. In many
ways, gmail gets it right but the "right
way" not the way most users are used to. One
of the biggest complaints is that it doesn't
deliver mail you send to yourself.
If you're having problems with gmail, begin
by checking your POP or IMAP account
settings on the gmail site.
ComputerWorld Article:
Hate Microsoft Outlook? Top 10 annoyances
and how to fix them
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9125061
My Outlook Annoyances List
My annoyances are really feature requests
and are based on both my experience and the
complaints I heard from users, in no
particular order of importance:
1. The monthly calendar doesn't offer the option to put "this
week" at the top.
We get a lot of questions about this,
especially at the end of months that fill 6
calendar weeks. Some users want "this week"
to always be the first row, others want it
to always be the second row. Microsoft gets
enough requests for this that if they could
make it work, it would be added. Instead,
they fixed the monthly views in Outlook 2007
so the full month fills the screen. Now,
instead of displaying five weeks for every
month, Outlook displays the full month using
4, 5, or 6 weeks as needed. There are some
issues with screen drawing as you move
through months, these are fixed in a future
update.
2. You can't make subtasks, link tasks or otherwise
prioritize tasks.
If I had a dime for every person who asked
if tasks could be nested, linked or
prioritized, I would retire and move to
somewhere warm and sunny, where it never
snows. There isn’t a good workaround for
this problem; most people who need this
number the tasks.
3. Syncing or sharing mail and calendar between users or
computers
This is everyone's top annoyance. Outlook
2007 is better with the calendar publishing
feature but its not perfect and anyone who
needs to share their calendar with others or
access it from two computers needs to use a
utility if they don't use Exchange server.
For workarounds and utilities, see Sharing
Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Contacts (http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.asp)
and Synchronizing Outlook on Two Machines (http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.asp).
4. Printing calendars
Most printing issues are bugs, not
annoyances and in many cases, it worked "as
expected" in older versions. Printing
options seem to get worse with each version
of Outlook. The environmentalist in me says
"Stop printing and save a few trees." but I
know there are a number of people who need
printed calendars, either out of habit or
because they don't have a handheld device to
sync to.
Microsoft released the Calendar Printing
Assistant to address users complaints. You
can find links to this and other utilities
at Calendar Printing Tools for Outlook
(http://www.slipstick.com/addins/calendar_print.asp).
The Word templates are worth a try.
5. Recurring appointments that don't follow a pattern
It's easy to tell who used to use GroupWise
when recurrence questions come up. Groupwise
allows users to select random dates and
create a recurring appointment. Outlook
makes you use a specific pattern: every xx
days, weeks, months, years. You can move
appointments around to create exceptions,
but they aren't as easy to set as
GroupWise's random dates and if you change
the appointment series later you'll lose the
exception.
There is an add-in, WS.Repeat Appointment,
you can use. (http://www.websetters.co.uk/WSAddIns/WSRAII/index.htm)
6. Wildcard and regular expressions in Rules Wizard
This is a popular request. Wildcards would
be useful in both Rules Wizard and
Search/Advanced Find but I'm not convinced
enough users know what regular expressions
are or how to write them (or would want to
learn) to make it worth Microsoft's time.
Fortunately Outlook is extensible and there
are several add-ins that do make it easier
to find and manage messages.
See Search Tools for Personal Use for search
tools.
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/search.asp
7. All day events don't show in the To-Do bar list.
This one is pretty much self-explanatory:
only timed events show on the To-Do bar.
While I don't expect this will change in
Outlook 2007, there is a good chance this
popular request will make it into Outlook
14.
Do you have an annoyance you'd like to
share? Write us at
emo@slipstick.com and we'll use them in
a future issue.
|
