Back to Microsoft Office Outlook and NewsGator

Outlook

Over a couple weekends ago I decided to switch back to Outlook because I missed the features like the calendar and tasks. I know, I can have all that with other programs, but why? I like having just one program open that does almost everything!

Another reason I switched is because I hate Thunderbird. Even though it’s the only e-mail client that works perfectly with Gmail IMAP when I have other e-mails forwarded to my Gmail account, I just don’t like Thunderbird. Never have. This could be because I have used Outlook for years. Using Thunderbird felt like I was downgrading.

Outlook isn’t too bad with Gmail IMAP, except that I have to manually select which e-mail address I want to use to send for my other e-mail accounts that are forwarded to my Gmail account. Outlook doesn’t automatically detect this like Thunderbird did when using identities.

I still use Outlook as I used Thunderbird with Gmail IMAP. I just wish I could use the delete button to delete e-mails, instead of always having to drag e-mails into the Gmail Trash folder. Oh well, eventually it will become habit or Microsoft will wake up and let me customize where I want my deleted e-mails to go!

NewsGator

When I had first started using Google Reader, I fell in love with it! I just liked how it worked. But, I just keep forgetting to check my feeds! It would be nice if there was some e-mail notification telling me when I have new feeds every so often. I know I get new feeds daily, but I just need some kind of reminder and notification telling me there is something new to read.

Before Google Reader, I had used NewsGator. During that time the NewsGator plugin wasn’t free to use. But now it is. I thought I would try it again. Because Google Reader doesn’t allow synchronizing, NewsGator sounds even better.

There are new features with the NewsGator plugin for Outlook, such as marking so many feeds as read depending on the age of new posts. This is something that Google Reader is missing and is needed when staring at 1000 new posts that I haven’t checked since a couple weeks ago!

The best part of the NewsGator plugin is that it is used inside of Outlook. This makes life much easier because I only need Outlook open, which I would have open 24/7 anyway, because I always check my e-mail and when I’m working, I use both the calendar and tasks for recording hours.

The only disadvantage when using an offline RSS reader is that it downloads to your hard drive and doesn’t go away unless you delete!

Anyone else prefer Outlook over Thunderbird and/or NewsGator over Google Reader?

WordPress 2.5

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.5 and it went smoothly. There weren’t any problems and all of the plugins appear to work fine.

I’ve seen some of what WordPress 2.5 would look like before trying it out. It looks so much better; it’s clean and easy on the eyes. Some may not agree with me when I say that this version is a little easier to use than previous ones. It just seems like I can login and find what I need to find right away, whether it’s writing a new post, viewing spam comments or changing the settings.

There are some newer features with this version. The most changed is probably the Dashboard. When first logging in, the Dashboard displays useful information such as new comments and incoming links.

I like that the more useful information is at the top and the WordPress Development Blog and Other WordPress News are at the bottom. If I wanted, I could also change those two to display other RSS feeds.

I also like how the Manage Posts screen looks now. It is much easier to read. I like the font size used, doesn’t feel like I’m looking at something for the blind, although I do have poor eyesight.

I don’t like that all of the options that were off to the side in the Write Post screen were moved to the bottom of the page. Why should I scroll when it would be faster to change options on the right side of the post? I think those options would be better where they were in previous versions.

Overall though, I like WordPress 2.5. Anyone else have something you don’t like about WordPress 2.5?

Read more about the WordPress 2.5 features at the WordPress Development Blog.