From Laptopmagazine. Product reviews and advice for best reference
Saturday, August 31, 2013
How To Change Color Scheme in Outlook 2013
Monday, September 10, 2012
Bring Outlook and Google Mail Contacts Together With GO Contact Sync
In the matter of contact managers, I used to like to keep business and leisure separate. I used Google Contacts to manage friends and family, while Microsoft Outlook was strictly for business. But when the walls between those two worlds began to crumble, I was left with an unruly mess...until I found GO Contact Sync. This free utility syncs contacts between Microsoft Outlook and Google Mail, and does so neatly, easily, and quickly.
Go Contact Sync's interface is basic, but very usable, making it easy to choose between the program's options.Downloading and installing GO Contact Sync is a snap, as is setting up and using the program, thanks to its basic but neatly organized interface. You simply need to enter your Google account information and decide whether to sync deletions between your two accounts. You also decide how to handle duplicates, determining whether Google's data should prevail over Microsoft's or vice versa. If you prefer, you can set the sync to run Outlook to Google only, Google to Outlook only, or both ways. Then, you click Sync and let the program go to work.
Within a matter of minutes, GO Contact Sync had done its work. My hundreds of Google contacts appeared seamlessly in my Outlook contact manager, while my hundreds of Outlook contacts were viewable in Google, both on my desktop and iPhone.
You can set GO Contact Sync to run automatically at certain intervals, which means you never have to decide between using Outlook and Google again. You can use both contact managers and rest easy, knowing that GO Contact Sync will make sure everything's in order for you, all of the time.
Note: The Download button takes you to SourceForge, where you can download the latest version of the software.
—Liane Cassavoy
GO Contact Sync is an open source tool that synchronizes your contacts between Microsoft Outlook and Google Mail, it removes the hassle of entering details more than once. It supports contact categories and contact photos so your contacts will look exactly the same. There are a few sync options to suite your needs and it can all be done automatically, so it can be used as a backup tool.
Note: This link takes you to Sourceforge, where you can download the latest version of the software.
From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Find Out What Happens to Your Outlook Emails With Track Your Sent
The folks at Caelo Software, makers of some excellent tools for organizing your Outlook email, are at it again with Track Your Sent. Unlike the company's NEO Pro, Track Your Sent is not an overall email organizer. Instead, it takes aim at a narrow part of your email experience: the messages you send. Although plenty of email utilities help bring order to your inbox, your sent items folder is often overlooked, left to drown under the weight of its own unorganized mess. Not anymore.
Track Your Sent adds a button that appears on all new messages you create, allowing you to set its category and folder before sending it. Still, it took me some time to warm up to Track Your Sent, a process that wasn't helped by the utility's unwieldy name. Based on its moniker, I expected this to be a utility that would allow you to find out when your sent messages were read. Instead, it's something more far-reaching and useful: an automated way to file and take action on messages that you send in Outlook.
Once you've installed utility, you can set its default actions for all messages that you send. The first two options are "File to Folder" and "Add Category"; here you can set a default folder and category for all messages sent, or you can set it to "Ask," which means you'll get prompted to make a choice every time you send a message. Yes, every time--something that gets old quickly. Unfortunately, you can't customize these categories.You can't addi messages to a select recipient to a certain folder, while putting messages to another person in another location, for example. But Track Your Sent does add a button that appears on all new messages you create, allowing you to set its category and folder before sending it.
In addition to filing and categorizing sent emails, Track Your Sent also allows you to create calendar entries and tasks from messages you sent. These features are an all-or-nothing sort of thing, though, as you can only enable this option for every message you send. Again, here it would be nice to be able to customize this setting a bit, so you only created calendar entries and tasks when you really needed to.
Track Your Sent does include an option for dealing with messages that you reply to or forward. Its "Maintain Categories" option keeps you categories consistent, and stores them locally, so they're never revealed to your message's recipient.
While Track Your Sent could benefit from more customization options, it will help folks who rely heavily on Outlook email to manage to-do lists and their daily lives.
Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software appropriate to your version of Outlook.
-- Liane Cassavoy
From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here
Thursday, February 16, 2012
eM Client: Affordable Alternative to Microsoft Outlook
If you're looking for the Microsoft Outlook experience without paying an arm and a leg, you should definitely consider eM Client. eM Client is a functional dead ringer for Microsoft's flagship e-mail client and organizer, with e-mail, tasks, contacts, and calendaring, and it's organized in largely the same fashion. If you know Outlook, you'll have no trouble using eM Client, though eM Client has many more features.
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Though eM Client's look is a bit different, functionally it's a dead ringer for Microsoft Outlook.EM Client offers the e-mail basics: support for multiple accounts (it's less buggy with this than Outlook), junk mail filtering, and the ability to organize and search. It also fully supports Gmail as well as Facebook and Skype messaging, and it imports Outlook's entire range of data: e-mail, contacts, tasks, and calendar appointments.
One unique and very cool eM Client feature is in the sidebar to the right of the main window. It shows all your email to and from the person connected with the currently displayed e-mail or contact. This feature is absolutely worth its weight in gold, and could be mined even further by making the program contact-driven. You don't even have open the email, simply hover over it and a readable preview pops up. On the downside, I miss Outlook 2010's feature that lets create rules by right-clicking on an e-mail .
eM Client has its own hosted Exchange service so you can easily sync email between your PC, laptop, and mobile devices. At $50 per year, it's quite a bit cheaper than most hosted Exchange services. (That said, many of the more expensive hosted Exchange services grant you a free license for Outlook.) Your $50 gets you unlimited accounts and phone support. The free license for eM Client is for personal use and supports only two email accounts.
eM Client isn't perfect; I'm not in love with the overall appearance, which is just a tad busy, or the poorly divided avalanche of options in the Settings dialog. But once you have eM Client configured, you'll find its features addictive as well as inspiring.
--Jon L. Jacobi
eM Client is being developed as an alternative to MS Outlook. It integrates enhanced Calendaring interface, Task and Contacts and Instant Messaging that users can simply configure and use. With eM Client you can easily import your messages and contacts from MS Outlook, Outlook Express, The Bat, and Thunderbird. eM Client 2.0. allows full synchronization with Gmail, Facebook, Skype and many other servers or services.
From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here