Anyone using or planning to use Outlook for Mac? Please vote!

[kelstarrising]

Anyone using or planning to use Outlook for Mac?

[Yayascuba]

YES!

I have just started with GTD, and plan to integrate my system with Outlook for Mac (Exchange & POP mail) and my iPad. I currently have a Droid (1st generation) and plan to switch to iPhone in July. Any recommendations for Action List apps?

I downloaded the eBooks on Implementing GTD with Outlook 2007, hoping to find some jewels. I also wrote to the people who write GTD addon to Outlook to see if they are planning a Mac version soon (they are not). Any assistance to inspire their programmers would be lovely!

Thanks,
Jean Fischer
Cedar Falls, IA

[kelstarrising]

Any assistance to inspire their programmers would be lovely!

Thanks Jean! Their expertise is really as Windows developers. So it's not likely they will move to the Mac world. And as far as we know, they are still trying to make the Add-In stable for Outlook 2010.

[Yayascuba]

Thanks. I understand and appreciate their area of expertise, and the differences between the two. Perhaps this is an opportunity and inspiration for Mac OS/Linux/App writers?:p

[Barb]

Thanks Jean! Their expertise is really as Windows developers. So it's not likely they will move to the Mac world. And as far as we know, they are still trying to make the Add-In stable for Outlook 2010.

I've been using it without issues at all for about 6 months (windows 7/Outlook 2010)! No issues at all.

[nunodonato]

Just as a warning, Outlook 2010 for mac does not have Sync capabilities, which for many of us render it unusable.
Many people have contacted microsoft due to the lack of this very important feature (its 2011!) but they have not give any dates yet for the update with Sync.

If you need, stick to Entourage for the time being.

[kelstarrising]

Hi Nuno,

Really? It doesn't sync to anything?

Kelly

[nunodonato]

Hi Nuno,

Really? It doesn't sync to anything?

Kelly

Hi Kelly,
Yeah, I know, hard to believe :/
They only managed to get Contacts sync'ing with the Mac Address Book, no calendar, tasks or notes whatsoever :(

[mbolick]

Outlook for Mac syncs great with exchange. All mail, contacts, calendars, notes, etc. sync instantly and easily. Remotely syncs to my iphone and my PC at work.

[jodha]

Hello Kelly,

I'm using outlook 2011 for mac.

I like it. It is not as powerfull as the windows version.

I'm using tasks and flagged mails to populate my list.
(the only thing to install are a couple of folders, some categories, and some rules)

for example when I have a mail that needs to be done and I have to surf the net for something as a next action.
I forward the mail to myself (I have me as a contact)If I have to reply after the search I forward it as an attachment.
I change the subjectline to maco: find ... and hit cmd+ enter.

a rule recognizes a mail from me to me with the 'maco:' keyword and marks it as read, flags it (no due date), adds category maconline and moves it to a folder.

In the task view

I have my different categories. When I select Maco: I'm looking at all the next actions for this week where I need to be online.


I have an app 'captio' on ipad and iphone which only send an email to myself. There I'm using the same keywords.

The basic 'engine' was made by a friend of mine who works for MSFT.


Johan

[kelstarrising]

Thank you for the detail Jodha. And are you syncing it to anything?

[jodha]

Hello Kelly,

not at the moment. I'm printing my calls list whenever I needed it to have it at hand.

But when you work with an exchange server you could choose to sync the flagged mails in the folders you want. you could choose to sync phone, and the others could stay on your machine.

J

[htownhman]

It is not as easy to organize or as powerful as outlook 2007 for windows. For instance, there is no way to designate a location for sent email to be stored other than the sent items folder. In 2007, there is a 'move' icon in the taskbar where you can designate where the item goes before sending.

Another issue is how to sort tasks. You can sort by categories, but no secondary sort by due date, alphabetical, etc. Also can't figure out how to filter out completed tasks. The sorting of folders using @ and periods also does not appear to work.

Overall I am disappointed with this, and considering a switch to omnifocus once I have my laptop switched to Mac.

Overall the computer works better, but GTD implementation seems far from ideal!!

Any help would be appreciated!

Best,

H

[rdgeorge]

I have purchased three copies of the latest Microsoft Office for Mac but do not use Outlook for any of the three ( Mac Pro / Macbook Pro / Macbook Air).

Omnifocus is clearly superior (IMHO) for GTD, and can easily synch to multiple devices via MobileMe.

Others mileage may vary.

rdgeorge

[1watermark]

I have been using Outlook for Office 2010 (and prior to that Office 2003) on my corporate server, synced to a Blackberry. This has been working beautifully. On 3/25/11, I got a MacBook Pro with Office for Mac, which I intend to run simultaneously for a while with the PC while I migrate to the new operating system and Office for Mac. When we synced my Outlook for Mac to the server, all of my email task attachments were lost!

If I had copied just the text of an email to the task, that remains. The whole attachments, however, disappeared on both the mac and pc (in many cases, those emails contained other attachments like spreadsheets, etc.).

Any suggestions or tips for auto-recovering these?

Related, I would love to have an Outlook for Mac setup guide like the GTD & Outlook guide for 2003 and 2007. I love those!

Thanks,
-Eric

[mart]

Another issue is how to sort tasks. You can sort by categories, but no secondary sort by due date, alphabetical, etc.

Yes, that is annoying. Did anybody find a solution?



Also can't figure out how to filter out completed tasks. The sorting of folders using @ and periods also does not appear to work.

You can untick completed tasks (and for instance leave the other two ticket, that are flagged items and overdue) in the toolbar of the tasks view.

[mbolick]

I would be happy to pay someone for a nice guide on how to use Outlook 2011 for Mac with the GTD methodology. I think it would be very useful as there are a ton of GTD Mac users and the new Outlook 2011 is so powerful and works so well with exchange.

[mart]

I am using Outlook 2011 for Mac now since one week for GTD. Switched from Outlook 2007 on Windows 7. What you might like:
* The "my day" window is nice (cmd+9). It shows today's calender + tasks. You can insert new tasks quickly with ctrl+shift+t. Then enter the task description, then shift+tab 3 times and type the context. It autocompletes. Quite handy.
* In the "my tasks" view (cmd+4), configure to show only those categories representing your contexts (Categorize -> Edit categories), in the navigation pane on the left uncheck all categories, then check the one you want to look at. Sort alphabetically.

Cheers,
Martin

[mbolick]

Thank you Martin...I will try those tips.

[Julian]

Caution for those who plan to move from Entourage to Outlook for mac:

I installed Outlook for Mac when it was released in order to benefit from the more stable (and backup-able) file structure. (Entourage's data file does not reliably backup with time machine).

Couldn't use Outlook until our Exchange server was updated, b/c it is not backwards compatible with Exchange pre-2007:
"Note: Exchange support in Outlook 2011 requires connectivity to Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 RU4 or later"
from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2353366