Prompts when exiting outlook

[VickyG]

Hi, How can i put a question box/prompt/pop up asking me 'if i want to exit
the application' when i go to exit outlook. I sometime click exit instead of
minimise and it drives me mad, i want the computer to ask me if i definately
want to close my e-mails. Thanks!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

There is an addin for this;
http://addins.howto-outlook.com/vboffice_olkeeper

 

[CMoya]

This infuriates me too. Outlook should behave the way EVERY other app that
puts an icon in the Notification Area (tray) does. It should allow you to
close the main window using the close X button and still keep it loaded in
the background.

 

[CMoya]

Need to pay for this functionality? Jeez.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Not even $6 to support a 3rd party developer. That is not a lot compared to
the time and effort he took to create and support it. Let alone his other
operational costs.

 

[CMoya]

I wrote a neat utility that loads Outlook in the background and has a lot
more functionality (http://www.cflashsoft.com/olload.htm) and I never
charged for it. Maybe I need to rethink my philosophies.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Yeah, I saw that. Funny intro page ;-)

It all depends on your business model. My OutlookTools is free as well. I
could charge for it but but that creates overhead costs and additional
hassle I don't want to be dealing with as developing is not my day-to-day
business. So making it free of charge is actually more profitable to me in
multiple ways. However, professional developers (like Michael Bauer, who
owns VBOffice.NET and created OLKeeper) do this as their day-to-day business
and he needs to make a living too. Knowing how much work he puts into his
addins and the support and commitment he provides to his customers, his
prices are very low compared to other vendors.

 

[Brian Tillman]

This infuriates me too. Outlook should behave the way EVERY other app
that puts an icon in the Notification Area (tray) does. It should
allow you to close the main window using the close X button and still
keep it loaded in the background.

That old song again.

 

[CMoya]

Not a song, man. I'm still bugged by this everyday. I close Outlook by
accident all the time. Do you even use Outlook?... do you have more then 3
windows open at any one time? I usually have dozens. So I choose Ol'07's
"Hide When Minimized" option. But, do you know any other app that does this
"MINIMIZE to tray" thing that Outlook does? None. They all use the Close
button to accomplish the same thing.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Well "Close" means close of course. I have a couple applications that hide
in the Notification Area and also close when choosing close so Outlook is
definitely not alone in that. Most have an option to change that default
action but not all.

It annoys me the other way around more though; applications that hide
instead of close and don't have an option to disable that. Closing such an
application always has to go via the context menu on the Notification icon
which means using the mouse.

When did we start redefining "close" to "hide"? Backwards reasoning makes
sense; close should mean close ;-)

 

[CMoya]

No, Close means "Close Window"... not necessarily the entire app. When you
close a Word window all your other Word windows don't close do they? Same
goes (nowadays) for Excel and PowerPoint (Excel fixed this in 2007 version).
This is especially true for Notification Area apps (of which Outlook is now
a member of because it plops a persistent icon right in there).

You say Outlook is not alone? Can you name the apps that do this? All common
apps that put a persistent icon in the Notification area don't behave this
way. Vista's Sync Center App doesn't unload when I close its window. Neither
does my VPN Client app (SonicWall). Neither do Instant Messenger apps
(Windows Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, et al). Microsoft OneNote (which also
includes a nifty tray icon) doesn't either. Only Outlook behaves
differently.

 

[CMoya]

By the way, does that utility contain the option to always "minimize when
close" (ugh! I HATE that terminology) instead of always prompting me? From
what I can tell it just prompts you... which is annoying.

Basically, I just want Outlook to behave like all other Notification Area
apps..... that is "Go Away... but stay loaded in the Notification Area so I
can receieve e-mail and appointment reminders."

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Windows Live Mail, Virtual PC, Jeyo (when phone not connected), Speedfan
originally didn't had that option either, there are some more but can't
remember them all as I don't have them all installed myself. uTorrent puts
itself in the Notification Area and by default unloads when pressing Close.
I believe QuickTime also adds itself to the Notification Area but only
displays a config screen and not the actual application when double clicking
it. There is a lot of inconsistency and anything but a standard on the
behavior of Notification Area icons.

You can debate if the Outlook Notification Area icon is there for (end-user)
functional reasons or for informational reasons. The context menu doesn't
offer much everyday functionality but mainly connectivity settings and the
icon itself represents the connectivity state of Outlook. Most applications
that load a Notification Area icon for configuration purposes and status
indication, unload their icon when you close the main application. In that
sense; Outlook's behavior is according to that "standard." The "Hide when
minimized" feature should then of course be considered as an extra.

The analogy with Word, Excel and PowerPoint doesn't fly either; when you
close the last Word window, Word will close just as Outlook. When you have
multiple Word windows open and close 1, Word will remain running. Outlook
behaves the same when you have multiple main Outlook windows open.

Anyway, as there are no standards on the behavior of Notification Area
icons, the Product Managers are free to do whatever they want with it. No
need to get "infuriated" about it. If you think it should be standardized
you can pick it up with the Windows team that deals with guidelines,
standards and certifications. For requesting it as an Outlook feature you
can provide feedback to the Outlook team.

The current guideline for using Notification Area icons is;
Notification area. Use only for system and program features that have no
presence on the desktop, as well as a short-term source for notifications
and status. Any other usage should be optional, unselected by default.
source; http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511448.aspx

 

[Roady [MVP]]

No, but I'm sure you can request that feature. Perhaps also have him change
the terminology; he's German and doesn't have English as his native language
;-)

He responds very well to feedback.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Not a song, man. I'm still bugged by this everyday. I close Outlook by
accident all the time. Do you even use Outlook?....

Every day.

do you have more then 3 windows open at any one time?

I have 16 open at this moment.

I usually have dozens. So I
choose Ol'07's "Hide When Minimized" option. But, do you know any
other app that does this "MINIMIZE to tray" thing that Outlook does?
None. They all use the Close button to accomplish the same thing.

I don't like applications to minimize to the notification area. I want
everything running to have a handle on the Taskbar and to CLOSE when I click
Close. Clicking Close and have the app continue to run is a perversion of
the Close button.

 

[CMoya]

As a developer, I tend to look at the standard tools that come with the OS
including Windows Messenger... and from a *user's* perspective (who doesn't
care about "main" windows, processes, etc). Once you do that, you'll see
that Notification Area usage is very well established and consistent.

I wouldn't be so bothered if Outlook's notification area icon was transient
(only showed up when it actually had something to say), but its persisent.
And as a persistent icon coupled with the behavior of its "main" window, it
violates guidelines.... the very ones you posted (it's not a "*short-term*
source for notifications and status" because it's there even when it has
nothing to say).

 

[CMoya]

Close (The X Button) means "Close Window." Always has meant that, always
will. The only time it means "Close Entire App" is for MDI apps.... except
for MDI apps that also reflect their child windows in the taskbar (Windows
in Taskbar option) in which case it means "Close Window" also.

Now on to the Notification Area. No built-in OS tool that uses the
Notification to plop a persistent icon (vs a transiant one that communicates
an error or message) unloads when you close its window. Your sound doesn't
mute when you close the Mixer window. Windows Messenger doesn't unload when
you close the messenger window. Why you can't see how Outlook (which plops a
PERSISTENT icon) violates these principles is beyond me.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

There are a lot of pros and cons for for having it the way it is and making
a change. Note that they are only guidelines; there could be very good
reasons to move away from them every now and then (for a good debate on
guidelines or rules see Pirates of the Caribbean :-D). A good reason
(intended by the devs or not) is that you cannot leave Outlook accidentally
open while restarting. While Windows Messenger only holds a connection,
Outlook has a database open. Looking at usage scenarios; users are less
likely to close the applications in the Notification Area before a shutdown
than any other application. With a restart, and Outlook still running, there
is an increased risk in damaging the database as applications, that are
still running at a user initiated shutdown, are not always allowed their
time to shut down gracefully. It's not like a service holding a connection
to a database (like Exchange or SQL) which (IIRC) by default are allowed up
to 10 minutes to shut down gracefully. Back to the user experience; users
will have used the power button by then.

Implementing it as a feature to change and allow either possibility might be
nice, no debate on that part, but only if they can guarantee that no data
would get damaged.

Personally; I don't hide Outlook when minimized. If fact, I don't think I
ever really minimize it. It is usually the main application on my second
monitor.

 

[CMoya]

I understand what you mean about the "Shutdown" issues. But that suggests an
architectural issue and bugs. Something the user doesn't care about. The
answer is: get rid of the Notification Area icon! Show it when you have
something to say (as the guidelines dictate). Do not suggest to the user
that this is a "tray app." It's not. So don't show a persistent tray
notification icon.

Outlook's cousin, OneNote, got it right. It show a very useful tray icon (as
an option) that provides easy creation of sidenotes and screen clippings.
And when I close OneNote the icon doesn't go away. Why? Because that's what
tray icons do.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I understand what you mean about the "Shutdown" issues. But that suggests

an architectural issue and bugs.

No, closing the application is what you should do with any application
before shutting down your system ;-)
An idea perhaps is that some applications can tap into a shutdown warning
system; a dialog that pops up requesting the user to close the application
before continuing the shutdown or a notification system of which apps
Windows is waiting for before completing shutdown. Then the delayed shutdown
would be visible to the user and Windows would have enough time to shutdown
gracefully and give all the apps the time they need. This issue is of course
not limited to Outlook but basically any tray app that holds active data
connections and locks which could take additional time to properly
disconnect. Also note that it is not just up to Outlook to release such
locks. Add-ins and sync software (especially when the mobile device is still
cradled) are known sources which will prevent a proper shutdown of Outlook.
But I'm sidestepping now as this doesn't matter for Outlook in tray or not;
just making a point towards user visibility of things that are going on and
delayed shutdowns.

OneNote's icon is functional. Outlook's icon is primarily informational. I
do not agree with you that it should not be persistent even though it should
be according to the guidelines. But again; a guideline isn't exact science,
they are no rules written in stone and can be moved away from for good
reasons. As Outlook's icon shows the connection status and send/receive
information, which a lot of users have set to around 5 minutes, it would
result in a very nervous Notification Area of showing and hiding the icon;
not good at all ;-)

The function; "Hide when minimized" is added by user request and because
that is more or less expected of a semi-persistent Notification Area icon. I
agree that it is a bit out of place when compared to the other features the
context menu offers. Still, the terminology is correct; it says "Hide when
minimized" and not "Minimize on close."

Sorry, I won't be able to continue to discuss this with you as I'll be
disconnected for over a week. It was nice talking to you