Tag Archives: Outlook

Back to Microsoft Office Outlook and NewsGator

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Posted by Alisha on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 – 8:11 pm
Filed under Software

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!

Outlook 2007

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.

NewsGator Inbox

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?

NewsGator FeedDemon 2.6

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Posted by Alisha on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 – 9:43 am
Filed under Reviews, Software

FeedDemon

I thought I would give FeedDemon a try as suggested by Jeffro2pt0 and also because it’s free. Who can pass up free software with good reviews? Not me.

I am not writing a full review, but more of a short first time experience with FeedDemon.  I hope that by sharing my experience, I can help others decide if FeedDemon is the right software to use.

I started off by importing a file I exported from Google Reader and FeedDemon only  imported very few feeds. A bug? I had to tell it to import a second time and it added more that was missing. Since I am subscribed to so many, I don’t know if it’s still missing some feeds. I will assume it found what was left.

I have to say my favorite feature is the Panic Button. What is the Panic Button? Say you have 1,000 feed items to read and don’t have the time. Hit the Panic Button and mark all items, items older than 24 hours, 48 hours, etc. as read. That is the best feature to have. I usually try to skim through all items, but sometimes you just have to let them go. I went ahead and marked all items as read since I had previously gone through them in Google Reader and didn’t need to go through them a second time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out how to add the Panic Button to the toolbar in FeedDemon.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to how simple Google Reader is to use, but I still feel myself going back to it. FeedDemon makes me feel like it will just fill up with items, eventually filling up my hard drive.  And no other feed reader that I’ve tried seems to have the feature to automatically mark an item as read when I’ve passed it. That’s the one feature I like about Google Reader that has kept me hooked.

FeedDemon seems okay, but not exactly what I want. So, again, it seems I’m back to Google Reader. Anyone have any other recommendations on feed readers that might be more similar to how Google Reader works? I want one that will save me time, instead of clicking to mark each item as read or having to remember to mark all items as read when I’m done looking at them.

Desktop Applications or Web Applications?

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Posted by Alisha on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 – 3:45 pm
Filed under Software

My Uninstalled Life

This past month I have been trying to use more web applications, because it’s convenient when I’m switching between computers. I have my desktop computer and my laptop. What if they were to both fail, for whatever reason?

I recently read at Jeffro2pt0 about My Uninstalled Life. It is about someone’s journey to replacing desktop applications with web applications.

The disadvantages to storing everything online are few, but could cause problems for some.

  • Internet access is required
  • Site availability
  • Privacy and security

I can’t completely move away from desktop applications. For example, with Gmail, every so often I open up my e-mail client and allow it to download e-mails as a backup. I never know if Google will disappear one day and take my e-mail with it! Okay, maybe I’m paranoid. Actually, if I don’t have Internet access when I need to check a saved e-mail, it’s nice to know I can read it whenever I need to.

With Gmail IMAP, checking e-mail on multiple computers is much easier. Unfortunately, Gmail is also missing a much needed feature: multiple signatures for the accounts that I have set to send e-mail as. I need this because my work account requires me to have a signature. So, I need to use a desktop application for e-mail.

I used to use Outlook with NewsGator’s plugin to check feeds. I had stopped using it and started using NewsGator’s online version. I have always loved NewsGator, but I felt overwhelmed with the amount of feeds I had to read daily. Google Reader makes this much easier. I don’t think I will use a desktop client again for this. This also saves hard drive space.

Goowy

For people who don’t have their own computer, but have access to Internet cafes or libraries can use web desktops. This allows you to have access to a set of applications and files on your own personal desktop from inside a browser. No need to visit several sites to access everything. Goowy and YouOS both offer this.

I prefer accessing my desktop computer from my laptop via Remote Desktop Connection. If I wasn’t home, I would want to access it via a Virtual Private Network. I like feeling like I’m at home on the computer.

I like that I can access what I want online, anywhere I want. But, I also want to be able to download that information so I can access it offline as well. This means I still need a desktop application to do it. So, even though I have started to use more web applications, I haven’t really uninstalled anything. I’ve only made it easier to access information and files from anywhere.

Is there a reason why you prefer desktop applications over web applications or vice versa?

How To Set Up Gmail IMAP with Outlook Express and Thunderbird

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Posted by Alisha on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 – 12:45 am
Filed under Software, Video
YouTube Preview Image

I already talked about the new IMAP feature in Gmail that hopefully you have access to. If not, be patient, it will come. David Risley from PCMechanic has a great how-to video for setting up Gmail IMAP on both Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

The first step is to make sure you have the IMAP feature in your Gmail account and that it is enabled. If you are going to use Thunderbird, make sure to download and install it. Outlook Express should already be installed if you have Windows. I recommend using Thunderbird. In fact, even though I love Outlook (not Outlook Express), Thunderbird is much faster.

His video is very easy to understand. Follow the steps for either Outlook Express or Thunderbird and Gmail IMAP should work in either client.

Be sure that you are setting up an IMAP account and not POP. For the mail servers, they would be:

  • Incoming: imap.gmail.com (port 993 with secure connection)
  • Outgoing: smtp.gmail.com (port 465 with secure connection)

Something to keep in mind that David Risley did not mention in the video. Some clients will automatically set the Gmail POP server for you after you enter in your Gmail account. You do not want this. When adding a new account in any client, if you see an option to select Gmail, you want to avoid that unless you want to set up Gmail POP.

Also, if you use Gmail to receive e-mails from other POP accounts, make sure you add the outgoing servers to your client otherwise you may find yourself replying with the wrong account. Thunderbird will automatically select the correct account when replying.

Thunderbird

Towards the end of the video, he talks about a few features that Thunderbird has. One useful feature to prevent confusion when going from Gmail to Thunderbird is that Thunderbird actually shows stars for starred e-mails. Outlook and Outlook Express display them as flags.

For me, Thunderbird may be my number one choice. I had tried it before, but didn’t like not having a calendar built in and not being able to export my mail. Now that I can use IMAP, I don’t need to worry about exporting if I ever decide to change e-mail clients. I was a huge fan of Outlook, but compared to Thunderbird, Outlook is really slow with this new IMAP feature.

Gmail IMAP

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Posted by Alisha on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 – 8:40 am
Filed under General, Software

Google has added a new feature to Gmail. This feature is Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)! It will allow you to check your e-mail on Google’s server, rather than downloading them to your computer. This means that anytime you check your e-mail from your laptop, mobile phone and work computer, etc., your e-mail will appear as it did on either device. If you placed an e-mail in a specific folder, it will show up in that folder no matter which device you checked with! Same thing with marking e-mail as read.

I like this, because I have a laptop and a desktop computer. I had once setup a shared Outlook file between the two just so I wouldn’t have to read the same e-mails twice. IMAP is much simpler!

Google IMAP

To find this new setting, login to Gmail and view the settings page and click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. If you don’t see this tab, then you may not have this feature, yet. Help for setting this up in Thunderbird, Outlook and iPhone, etc. is also available underneath the option for turning it on. Watch this video for setting it up on the iPhone. Or even read How-to: Proper Gmail IMAP for iPhone & Apple Mail. Although the steps are specifically for the iPhone and Apple Mail, I’m sure you can figure out how to do this for other clients (e.g. Outlook or Windows Live Mail).

It appears that some people are seeing this new feature and some aren’t. So, if you check your settings in Gmail and don’t see it, don’t worry, it’s coming!

Thank you for IMAP, Google!