{"id":17118,"date":"2010-04-14T15:22:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T21:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=17118"},"modified":"2010-04-14T15:22:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T21:22:14","slug":"pondering-the-shift-from-gmail-back-to-outlook-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/14\/pondering-the-shift-from-gmail-back-to-outlook-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Pondering the shift from Gmail back to Outlook (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

So last September, I wrote this<\/a>.\u00a0 Summary — there are all sorts of conveniences and features I love about using Gmail for my office mail, but the inconveniences and annoyances were such that I was going to change back to Outlook.<\/p>\n

*sigh*<\/p>\n

Well, after being talked back into sticking with Gmail by the CIO, I’ve been trying to accentuate the positive here but, honestly, I’m getting fed up with … well, not so much Gmail problems per se (I still love the platform), but bad drug interactions between it and Exchange, in particular (as mentioned in that post):<\/p>\n

1. Chronic lack of rich text \/ HTML formatting between the two.\u00a0 People send me tables they’ve pasted into email in Outlook, and I get deconstructed cells (a single column of numbers and text I have to visually figure out the rows in).\u00a0 Bolding and italics I use vanish.\u00a0 Colors get all mixed up.\u00a0 I pride myself on presentation, and the stuff I send out ends up looking like text-editor crap.<\/p>\n

2. Calendar linkages are chronically wonky.\u00a0 Sometimes folks can’t see my calendar.\u00a0 Or they see it, but it’s wrong.\u00a0 Or all grayed-out tentative.\u00a0 Likewise, I can’t reliably see others’ calendars, except when I’m logged in from outside the firewall, in which case I can reliably not see them at all.<\/p>\n

One barrier that previously caused me grief — having to fire up IE6 from outside the firewall to get to Outlook Web Access — is now greatly diminished by having IE8 on my machine.\u00a0 (I can access OWA from Chrome or Firefox, but the app is highly dependent on ActiveX or something, so I get a dumbed-down version of it).<\/p>\n

One thing that’s been holding me back — figuring out how the change in status of my mobile phone (as my company divests itself of ownership of same) — is still there, but since both the above issues are PC-based mostly, sticking with Gmail and GCal doesn’t make any difference here.<\/p>\n

I’ve also heard rumors of another Google pilot within the company, focusing on the Documents suite, but I’ve no idea of the timing of that, and, frankly, even though the above problems haven’t been helped by our having limited in-house resources to address them, they were problems back when Google was actively supporting us, so I don’t expect much in the way of change.<\/p>\n

So I’ve started taking steps toward the shift — number one of which was setting up Thunderbird to IMAP my Gmail store so I can archive off needed mail before the getting back into Outlook and having our mail policy destroy my messages. Once I’ve gotten that done, I will let the Messaging guys know that I want to change (like all but a half-dozen of the fellow Pilot members).<\/p>\n

I’ll miss some of it terribly — I like the client, I like tagging, I love <\/em>the searchability — but it just doesn’t work well enough with the rest of my company to keep using. Drats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So last September, I wrote this.\u00a0 Summary — there are all sorts of conveniences and features I love about using Gmail for my office mail, but the inconveniences and annoyances were such that I was going to change back to Outlook. *sigh* Well, after being talked back into sticking with Gmail by the CIO, I’ve … Continue reading “Pondering the shift from Gmail back to Outlook (again)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,21,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-tech","category-job-jollies","category-my-computer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15863,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/25\/pondering-the-shift-from-gmail-back-to-outlook.html","url_meta":{"origin":17118,"position":0},"title":"Pondering the shift from GMail back to Outlook","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Sep-09 2:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been involved in a corporate pilot the last few months using GMail and related Google Apps as part of our integrated corporate mail \/ calendar \/ app environment. It's been very interesting, and I've been loving using GMail instead of Outlook. So I think I'm converting back. First off,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17193,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/23\/end-of-an-era-gmail-back-to-outlook.html","url_meta":{"origin":17118,"position":1},"title":"End of an Era (Gmail back to Outlook)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Apr-10 6:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, I am indeed Going Through With It, and changing back to Outlook for my office email.\u00a0 I am already missing the search functionality of Gmail and its easy web access and so forth ... and Outlook 2003 has already crashed on me twice ... but I really need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"outlook2003","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/outlook2003.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14994,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/10\/shifting-from-outlook-to-google-mail-et-al.html","url_meta":{"origin":17118,"position":2},"title":"Shifting from Outlook to Google Mail (et al.)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-Jun-09 11:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As noted before, I signed up for a pilot in my company, evaluating GMail, Google Calendar, and Google Apps as potential replacements for Outlook and Office. After much behind-the-scenes maneuvering about, the project team kicked off the pilot today with an hour-long presentation by Google. Well, that was something of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13284,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/30\/outlook_is_gloomy.html","url_meta":{"origin":17118,"position":3},"title":"Outlook is Gloomy","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Jan-09 8:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft Outlook, that is. My company is doing a proof-of-concept pilot to see how Google's tools could be used in lieu of Microsoft desktop ones. In particular they are...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14083,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/10\/prying-outlook-from-my-apprehensive-fingers.html","url_meta":{"origin":17118,"position":4},"title":"Prying Outlook from my apprehensive fingers","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Mar-09 7:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I've been accepted into the company pilot of using GMail and other Google apps for day-to-day work, instead of Microsoft Outlook and (to a lesser degree) Office.\u00a0 I'm both excited and fairly certain I'm going to regret this.\u00a0 One question that comes to mind is how it will integrate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17297,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/06\/outlook-mixed.html","url_meta":{"origin":17118,"position":5},"title":"Outlook Mixed","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-May-10 3:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I've been back on Outlook 2003 at work for close to two weeks now. \u00a0Net-net, I'm ... satisfied that making the change back from Gmail was the right decision, but by no means an unalloyed one. On the positive side ... I love being able to drag and drop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"outlook2003","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/outlook2003.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}