Most requested features missing from Outlook?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony Gravagno
  • Start date Start date
T

Tony Gravagno

As a developer I'm curious about what people want to get out of
Outlook that isn't already built in. It would be interesting to see a
list of features that people really want and need.

For example, many people including myself have lots of issues with the
Rules Wizard, spam, etc. I wrote a replacement for the Rules Wizard
which gives much more control over filtering than the default Rules
setup. It allows for custom regular expressions and complex AND/OR
patterns. Filters can be shared, imported like automatic anti-virus
definitions, etc. I know there are many such products already
offered, so this doesn't have a lot unique value-add for this market.
(My code isn't ready for sale, but if it seems like it can fill an
unfilled niche, sure I'll keep working on it.)

So what else do people really want from Outlook?

Thanks.
Tony
(e-mail address removed)
(Offering custom development of MS Office solutions)
 
I use the Journal extensively to track what I do during the day. I would
like to see more flexibility in tracking other activities in the Journal.
 
Oh yes, and the printing options are awful. I'd love to be able to
customize my own printing "forms" or pages.
 
Lila Hayes said:
I use the Journal extensively to track what I do during the day. I would
like to see more flexibility in tracking other activities in the Journal.
Click to expand...

What kinds of activities? For contract work I've created a lot of
custom Categories like Research, Coding, Testing, Diagnostic, Bug,
Billable, Non-Billable, DoNotBill (for billable work that I've decided
to not bill for some reason), Invoiced, etc.. I then use the Journal
to help locate specific activity, and generate detailed invoices for
clients; all invoiced entries are flagged Invoiced so that I know I
didn't miss any detail. Remember that you can have multiple Journal
folders to track activity for various clients, departments, tasks,
etc.

Now if you'd like to tie other applications into your Journal, that's
the sort of thing I can do. As an example, you can click a button in
Word to create a Journal entry when you've read documents to some
milestone points. You can also create a Journal item if you update an
Excel sheet and a designated cell achieves a defined state. Or if you
fix a specific bug in Visual Studio you can automatically create or
update a Journal entry, or notify the bug reporter that the issue has
been addressed.

Tony
(e-mail address removed)
(Offering custom development of MS Office solutions)
 
It is just kind of cumbersome to track things. For about 7 years now I've
configured the Journal to look like the daily calendar but in 15 min
increments (my billing increment). I just click in a time slot and type in
the activity I'm doing "help John with printing problem" or "work on
budget". It's nice when programs automatically place themselves in the
Journal so if I forget to jot something down, the automatic entries can help
jog my memory.

Thing is, when you just click and type the default activity is "phone call".
There is not an easy way (short of customizing the form) to make the default
activity something else. It's too much trouble to double click to open each
and every activity I do and change the type so I've just relied on the
"day/week/month" view and kept track of activities visually by time and day
(the way I bill anyway).

When I first realized I had to start tracking what I did during the day, I
started using the calendar. Thing is, by default it wants to "remind you"
of the calendar activity so tracking time like that isn't practical. Also,
it's hard to keep actual appointments (like, "meeting with Joe Schmo")
separate from actually tracking of activities (like, "work on budget").

I guess I could've created a new calendar folder for it, but then I found
the Journal and realized that the tracking of activities was much more
suited to the Journal.

In the last few months I've moved from working most of the time at one
clients office to working most of the time at my home office and for
multiple clients. Just in the last week (after 7 years of using it the
other way) I've decided that I could expand the way I use the Journal so I'm
just starting to explore the possibilities. I just realized I can
automatically dial and track my phone calls through Outlook. This is
something that wasn't possible at the clients office since they have an old
PBX that would take customization (if it was even possible) to allow the
modem to dial out. It's also not possible when working with multiple
clients.

I've heard of the "Microsoft Phone" that can track phone calls automatically
without even hooking the phone to your computer. Sounds cool... especially
if I could get my iPAQ to sync to the Journal (something it doesn't
currently do) then link to my cell phone (maybe via blue tooth) to track
every cell call I make... even on the road. Wow! That would really be
cool.

Hey, if the Journal would just sync to Outlook (without some weird other
software that does more than I want and takes over more of my folders than I
want) then I could track activities out of the office. Currently when I go
to the clients site, I jot things down in the Calendar then move it all to
the Journal when I get back to the office.

Then if I could Journal to track my email and newsgroup posting via Outlook
Express... Heck, I'd like it to track EVERY program I'm in. Then I would
really know what I'm doing (i.e. wasting time on) during the day. I am
currently trying to get it to track FrontPage. You'd think it would be easy
since it's a Microsoft product, but it doesn't seem to be as easy as I first
thought.

You know, it would be a good idea to have multiple folders. I could keep
separate clients separate.

Hey, how about making the CAR talk to the Journal (blue tooth again???).
You know, I just starting hearing of a device that you install in your car
so you can track everything the car does from the Internet. I think it was
this http://www.roadremote.com/ Maybe Outlook could sync to that!!! Then I
wouldn't have to remember to jot down my mileage for tax purposes. Okay,
now we're talking.

How about everyone in the house keeping a computer calendar so we can share
each other's schedule (something I'm sure I'll need once my 2 and 4 year old
get a few years older). And imagine the big brother scenario if I could
track all of THEIR activities too. Hmmm. I just thought of that one!!!

Anyway, there are a million possibilities I'm sure. These are just the few
I've thought of in the past few days.
 
I would love to be able to create custom reports in Word very eaily fro
the Journal or evn print decent looking reports from with Outlook.

Maybe by telling you what I do will help.

I am a computer tech in a school, I have to track all the work I do.
use Outlook to track all my jobs timed ones as well at just regula
tasks.

I have to track the following, the school I am at, the location withi
the school, the system serial number, the problem, and the solution.

I was using PocketJournal that does a very good job at syncing wit
Journal in outlook, but as the reports in Outlook are no good I gave u
using it and have since switched to DayNotez for the time being.

So yep, being able to creat custom reports from the journal would b
great. The table layout is a total waste of time and the memo style i
to restrictive and wastes paper as it prints one journal entry pe
page.

I know this would make the journal a bit bigger than it actaully i
supposed to be, but if Microsoft wants to create and all in one wor
system by enhancing journal they woule go a long way.

Thanks for taking an interest in what the user wants.

Derek Bowe
 
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