William Case keyed the following on 4/9/2007 6:16 PM:
Hi;
I couldn't help noticing the number of queries there are on this list from
new users / potential users for an integrated "Outlook -like" component. I
use OOo plus evolution. That seems to do everything.
What integrated extra am I missing by no longer using my
WindowsXP/MSOffice/Outlook? What are the posters looking for?
Just curious!
Funny you should ask!
Last night, my niece, a very smart person (full scholarship to MIT, MSCompSci
at Berkeley paid for by Bell Labs, etc.) gave me her reasons for using
Outlook.
She said:
"The main reason Outlook is my choice is its integration of calendar,
contacts, e-mails, documents, and tasks (to-dos). You can create a task
and attach to it any relevant information including documents, e-mails,
contact info for people involved, links, etc. When you’re ready to
schedule the task, you can drag and drop it right into your calendar.
When you go to do the task (either from your calendar or a task list),
everything you need to accomplish it is right there in front of you.
"As an example, we [my niece runs a small consulting business] are
looking to hire a web designer. My business partner has sent out a
request for recommendations and has been forwarding me the e-mails that
look worth following up on. I’ve promised her that tomorrow I’ll check
out a certain particularly promising web designer. The action is
scheduled in my calendar, with all my partner’s web designer e-mails
attached. When I go to check out the designer’s previous works, all the
links are right there in her e-mail; when I’m ready to call her, her
contact info is there. When I’m done checking her out, if I want to
follow up with some of the other designers, I can just copy the task to
my task list or to a future time slot in my calendar, because all the
e-mails from the other designers are also attached to the current task.
"Pre-Outlook, I would have seen in my Palm calendar that it was time to
check out the web designer. Then I’d have had to go to my e-mail and
search for the e-mail my partner had forwarded to me from that
particular designer, to follow the links and contact her. When I was
ready to check out additional designers, I’d have had to go find all
those individual e-mails to decide which ones to check out first. That’s
a particularly simple example, because it includes only e-mails, but you
could imagine if there were also documents I needed to check, and
contact info to look up, how much easier it would be if it was all in
one place, right there in my calendar. “It’s 10:00 – here’s what you
need to do, and everything you need to do it.” I can go straight into
action, without all that hidden un-planned-for prep time it used to
require."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
