Outlook should include Phone Message as a feature

[Guest]

We do two things while at our desks; reply to e-mails and answer the phone.
Why not incorporate both of these tasks within Outlook? We have Notes, Tasks,
Calendars, Contacts, and Mail...why not Phone Messages? Sure there are "while
you were out" add-ins available, but they aren't truly integrated with the
rest of the program.

Here's a mockup of what the sidebar would look like:
http://forum.mjpd.com/files/outlook_phone_582.jpg

Wouldn't it be nice if Phone Messages were a true and supported feature of
Outlook? It should allow us to log our calls, send and receive phone messages
to others, associate those messages with Contacts (via the Activities tab),
etc.

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[Ben M. Schorr - MVP]

Why not just use the Journal?

Aloha,

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, OneNote-MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft Outlook FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/outlook.htm

**I apologize but I am unable to respond to direct requests for assistance.
Please post questions and replies here in the newsgroup. Mahalo!

 

[CMM]

I think MS has halfheartedly dabbled with this in the past together with
receiving faxes in the Inbox, which was actually a very early feature of
Outlook back when Outlook was called Microsoft Exchange (yes, before
Exchange *Server* came out... Microsoft Exchange was the update to Win95's
Windows Inbox and it was eventually renamed "Outlook" and sold with Office)
and they never quite seemed to really "innovate" this feature. The feature
was only available as an add-on packaged with some modems (the software was
called MS Phone or something like that).

I agree... Microsoft's early vision of the "Universal Inbox" has been a
great big failure... not because of its lack of usefulness but because of
their inability to get it "right."