Your impressions of OL 2007??? I'll start

[P Cause]

I thought it would be interesting to get people's impressions of OL 2007.
We've had it a while and I was wondering what folks thought of the beta.
Here are my impressions:

- Beta 2 is very slow and buggy. yes I know it is "beta", but this release
if more like a last alpha, and since MS was making noise about a Fall
release, one had higher expectations.
- Like the new flags and categories. Makes things much more convenient and
makes me more productive. Only things is that you should default to show
flagged items for all PSTs.
- I found myself disappointed. After a long wait, there was much less
improvement than I'd expect. Lots of new ribbons, dialogs and other UI candy
and changes, but less effort on things to make me productive. Features and
speed guys are as important to your existing users as eye candy. And speed
is KEY, because when I am waiting for OL, I am certainly NOT being productive.
- Thanks for fixing the security model so that other applications can use OL
without all of the annoying pop ups. I'd have liked something like Skype
does, where you'd be asked about each application and whether or not to let
is use OL.
- MS seems to think that folks work only with one PST. I have several to
keep things from getting to large on the Exchange server, etc. The time to
switch PSTs is slow (was in OL2003 but worse now) and things like defaults
don't assume you have multiple PSTs.
- WDS has ecome a key elements of the OL system and having the WDS stuff be
behind OL isn't helpful. Initial Beta of WDS 3.0 was awful. Just loaded the
Beta 2 and it seems better and faster.
- Lots of comments about the ribbon. Takes too much space, makes it hard to
find things, etc. Some of this is just that it is different, but I don't
find it convenient, especially if you are a long time user of a piece of
software and know the keystrokes. Instead of building UIs that force us all
to use what someone at MS thinks is a great new UI idea, MS should focus on
adding the ability for the user to customize more than they do. let us
choose keystrokes, what is on which ribbon elements, etc. Also can't
understand why they use it for things like the message creation window but
not for the main window. If it is useful in one place one would think it
would be useful in all views.
- Lots of fit and finish issues, but these are expected in a Beta 2.
Example: When I open a windows for contacts the selected item is the last
not the first. Probably not a big deal, but looks strange, since one expects
the first item to be the selected one when you open a new view.
- The MVPs have been great in helping with questions posted to the group.
Thanks for your hard work.

 

[RedLine]

Agreed with you. To me the major problem is link click. This bug a lot and
crash and/or gave me slow job, while is oppening the IE.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

since MS was making noise about a Fall release, one had higher expectations.

The release date was changed to late 2006 (volume license customers) / early 2007 (retail + OEM) quite a few weeks ago.

speed is KEY
The time to switch PSTs is slow (was in OL2003 but worse now)

As a beta, it is not optimized for performance yet. You can expect a big performance difference between this beta and the findal version.

things like defaults don't assume you have multiple PSTs.

Which defaults?

[ribbon] Takes too much space

You can collapse the ribbon with Ctrl+F1 or double-clicking the current group

[ribbon] makes it hard to find things

Which things in particular? That's the kind of issue for which we may provide some useful feedback to Microsoft.

can't understand why they use it for things like the message creation window but not for the main window. If it is useful in one place one would think it would be useful in all views.

Not enough time/resources to do both and with the integration with Word for editing, the individual item windows had to be done. Even doing just those required more work than doing all of Word.

If you aren't already reading Jensen Harris' blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/, I'd strongly recommend it, for he explains much of the rationale around the ribbon and what post-Beta 2 changes are planned.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[RedLine]

Thank you your answer Sue.

This is the best way for people like me, who love beta tests...And for you,
who need explore bugs and crashs before a release.

 

[DABrownCA]

Overall I like the new look, feel, and features of Office 2007. Before I
comment on Outlook, let me say there, too, are some nice improvements.
However, as someone who spends hours per day using a workstation for
everything from simulating electromagnetic fields to writing business plans,
the Outlook 2007 editor SUCKS! (...sorry, I write emails one hour every
morning and one hour every night, and this editor ruins my mood in the
morning and keeps me awake at night.) I hate it to the extreme. I have
tried countless remedies, but I still cannot finisht three lines without a 10
- 25 second screen freeze occuring. At first I coped by filling the keyboard
buffer, but not all of my keystrokes appear when the buffer dumps to the
screen. Now, I compose everyting in Word and copy into Outlook.

What the heck happened? Outlook 2003 never gave me any problems. --Being a
long-standing veteran of beta software, I know the final product will be
better, I just needed to vent a bit and to let you know how truly bad I find
the current editor. If nothing else were to changed from beta to production,
please let the Outlook editor be the one thing that gets fixed.

Best regards --and with good intentions,

DABrown

 

[Patrick Schmid]

To find out about customization of the ribbon, read the blog on my
website.

Patrick Schmid

 

[Roady [MVP]]

So the only thing you don't like about the editor is that it freezes? Well
then the answer is easy; this is truly a BETA thing. I can assure you that
this won't be in the final release.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Overall I like the new look, feel, and features of Office 2007. Before I
comment on Outlook, let me say there, too, are some nice improvements.
However, as someone who spends hours per day using a workstation for
everything from simulating electromagnetic fields to writing business plans,
the Outlook 2007 editor SUCKS! (...sorry, I write emails one hour every
morning and one hour every night, and this editor ruins my mood in the
morning and keeps me awake at night.) I hate it to the extreme. I have
tried countless remedies, but I still cannot finisht three lines without a
10
- 25 second screen freeze occuring. At first I coped by filling the
keyboard
buffer, but not all of my keystrokes appear when the buffer dumps to the
screen. Now, I compose everyting in Word and copy into Outlook.

What the heck happened? Outlook 2003 never gave me any problems. --Being a
long-standing veteran of beta software, I know the final product will be
better, I just needed to vent a bit and to let you know how truly bad I find
the current editor. If nothing else were to changed from beta to
production,
please let the Outlook editor be the one thing that gets fixed.

Best regards --and with good intentions,

DABrown

 

[P Cause]

Thanks, Sue. As always you have good and thoughtful comments. I started
the thread to see what other people are thinking and get other ideas about
the functionality. In the end, we all know we're going to use this and given
the amount of time during the day that I spend in Outlook, I will always want
more.

One wonders why MS didn't incorporate some of the ideas from the small tools
vendors into the release. Things like duplicate eliminators, ability to have
attachments saved to disk and linked to the base OL items, full linking
between items and not just through contacts, etc. There was plenty of time
to do this kind of stuff in the last few years.

since MS was making noise about a Fall release, one had higher expectations.

The release date was changed to late 2006 (volume license customers) / early 2007 (retail + OEM) quite a few weeks ago.

speed is KEY
The time to switch PSTs is slow (was in OL2003 but worse now)

As a beta, it is not optimized for performance yet. You can expect a big performance difference between this beta and the findal version.

things like defaults don't assume you have multiple PSTs.

Which defaults?

[ribbon] Takes too much space

You can collapse the ribbon with Ctrl+F1 or double-clicking the current group

[ribbon] makes it hard to find things

Which things in particular? That's the kind of issue for which we may provide some useful feedback to Microsoft.

can't understand why they use it for things like the message creation window but not for the main window. If it is useful in one place one would think it would be useful in all views.

Not enough time/resources to do both and with the integration with Word for editing, the individual item windows had to be done. Even doing just those required more work than doing all of Word.

If you aren't already reading Jensen Harris' blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/, I'd strongly recommend it, for he explains much of the rationale around the ribbon and what post-Beta 2 changes are planned.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Debatable. They don't want to kill those vendors of small tools either ;-)

In general you wouldn't really need a duplicates remover with just normal
Outlook use. You'll find that quite a number of small tools are very
targeted to a specific user need and less to common use. For instance
Microsoft did incorporate RSS functionality and developed an amazing
Attachment Previewer feature (I just love that feature! .

Keep in mind that Outlook is primarily a corporate PIM (also note that
Outlook isn't include in Office Home & Student). Storing attachments
outiside of e-mails would have a serious impact on the roaming capabilities
of a user. In corporate environments you want to handle this on the server
level (Exchange) transparent to the user.

"There was plenty of time to do this kind of stuff in the last few years."
Time is relative but note that most of the available time went into the
research, development and redesign of the UI.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Thanks, Sue. As always you have good and thoughtful comments. I started
the thread to see what other people are thinking and get other ideas about
the functionality. In the end, we all know we're going to use this and
given
the amount of time during the day that I spend in Outlook, I will always
want
more.

One wonders why MS didn't incorporate some of the ideas from the small tools
vendors into the release. Things like duplicate eliminators, ability to
have
attachments saved to disk and linked to the base OL items, full linking
between items and not just through contacts, etc. There was plenty of time
to do this kind of stuff in the last few years.

since MS was making noise about a Fall release, one had higher
expectations.

The release date was changed to late 2006 (volume license customers) /
early 2007 (retail + OEM) quite a few weeks ago.

speed is KEY
The time to switch PSTs is slow (was in OL2003 but worse now)

As a beta, it is not optimized for performance yet. You can expect a big
performance difference between this beta and the findal version.

things like defaults don't assume you have multiple PSTs.

Which defaults?

[ribbon] Takes too much space

You can collapse the ribbon with Ctrl+F1 or double-clicking the current
group

[ribbon] makes it hard to find things

Which things in particular? That's the kind of issue for which we may
provide some useful feedback to Microsoft.

can't understand why they use it for things like the message creation
window but not for the main window. If it is useful in one place one
would think it would be useful in all views.

Not enough time/resources to do both and with the integration with Word
for editing, the individual item windows had to be done. Even doing just
those required more work than doing all of Word.

If you aren't already reading Jensen Harris' blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/, I'd strongly recommend it, for he explains
much of the rationale around the ribbon and what post-Beta 2 changes are
planned.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Patrick Schmid]

In addition to the UI changes there are a lot of other new things in OL
2007:
- instant search
- the to-do-bar, tasks integrated into calendar
- the native Outlook editor is a not a slimmed down version of Word with
a lot more functionality than the previous one
- RSS feeds
- sharing of your calendar without Exchange server and Internet Calendar
support
- obviously improvements for Exchange Server 2007
- Windows SharePoint Services integration
- phishing filter
- color categories
- attachment preview
- major improvements in IMAP support
- timezone support in UI

So MS was quite busy in the last few years

Patrick Schmid
--------------
http://pschmid.net

Debatable. They don't want to kill those vendors of small tools either ;-)

In general you wouldn't really need a duplicates remover with just normal
Outlook use. You'll find that quite a number of small tools are very
targeted to a specific user need and less to common use. For instance
Microsoft did incorporate RSS functionality and developed an amazing
Attachment Previewer feature (I just love that feature! .

Keep in mind that Outlook is primarily a corporate PIM (also note that
Outlook isn't include in Office Home & Student). Storing attachments
outiside of e-mails would have a serious impact on the roaming capabilities
of a user. In corporate environments you want to handle this on the server
level (Exchange) transparent to the user.

"There was plenty of time to do this kind of stuff in the last few years."
Time is relative but note that most of the available time went into the
research, development and redesign of the UI.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Thanks, Sue. As always you have good and thoughtful comments. I started
the thread to see what other people are thinking and get other ideas about
the functionality. In the end, we all know we're going to use this and
given
the amount of time during the day that I spend in Outlook, I will always
want
more.

One wonders why MS didn't incorporate some of the ideas from the small tools
vendors into the release. Things like duplicate eliminators, ability to
have
attachments saved to disk and linked to the base OL items, full linking
between items and not just through contacts, etc. There was plenty of time
to do this kind of stuff in the last few years.

since MS was making noise about a Fall release, one had higher
expectations.

The release date was changed to late 2006 (volume license customers) /
early 2007 (retail + OEM) quite a few weeks ago.

speed is KEY
The time to switch PSTs is slow (was in OL2003 but worse now)

As a beta, it is not optimized for performance yet. You can expect a big
performance difference between this beta and the findal version.

things like defaults don't assume you have multiple PSTs.

Which defaults?

[ribbon] Takes too much space

You can collapse the ribbon with Ctrl+F1 or double-clicking the current
group

[ribbon] makes it hard to find things

Which things in particular? That's the kind of issue for which we may
provide some useful feedback to Microsoft.

can't understand why they use it for things like the message creation
window but not for the main window. If it is useful in one place one
would think it would be useful in all views.

Not enough time/resources to do both and with the integration with Word
for editing, the individual item windows had to be done. Even doing just
those required more work than doing all of Word.

If you aren't already reading Jensen Harris' blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/, I'd strongly recommend it, for he explains
much of the rationale around the ribbon and what post-Beta 2 changes are
planned.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[DABrownCA]

That's good to know. I did not think it would appear in the final release,
....and...sorry if I was rude. I just needed to vent. I tried so many things
to fix, or at least lessen the problem, that the frustration of the feezing
was compounded by an underlying sense of defeat.

Thanks for replying.

Regards,
DABrownCA

So the only thing you don't like about the editor is that it freezes? Well
then the answer is easy; this is truly a BETA thing. I can assure you that
this won't be in the final release.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Overall I like the new look, feel, and features of Office 2007. Before I
comment on Outlook, let me say there, too, are some nice improvements.
However, as someone who spends hours per day using a workstation for
everything from simulating electromagnetic fields to writing business plans,
the Outlook 2007 editor SUCKS! (...sorry, I write emails one hour every
morning and one hour every night, and this editor ruins my mood in the
morning and keeps me awake at night.) I hate it to the extreme. I have
tried countless remedies, but I still cannot finisht three lines without a
10
- 25 second screen freeze occuring. At first I coped by filling the
keyboard
buffer, but not all of my keystrokes appear when the buffer dumps to the
screen. Now, I compose everyting in Word and copy into Outlook.

What the heck happened? Outlook 2003 never gave me any problems. --Being a
long-standing veteran of beta software, I know the final product will be
better, I just needed to vent a bit and to let you know how truly bad I find
the current editor. If nothing else were to changed from beta to
production,
please let the Outlook editor be the one thing that gets fixed.

Best regards --and with good intentions,

DABrown

Thank you your answer Sue.

This is the best way for people like me, who love beta tests...And for
you,
who need explore bugs and crashs before a release.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

No problem, when I'm truly running out of patience I usually try to avoid
BETA software ;-)

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
That's good to know. I did not think it would appear in the final release,
....and...sorry if I was rude. I just needed to vent. I tried so many
things
to fix, or at least lessen the problem, that the frustration of the feezing
was compounded by an underlying sense of defeat.

Thanks for replying.

Regards,
DABrownCA

So the only thing you don't like about the editor is that it freezes? Well
then the answer is easy; this is truly a BETA thing. I can assure you that
this won't be in the final release.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Overall I like the new look, feel, and features of Office 2007. Before I
comment on Outlook, let me say there, too, are some nice improvements.
However, as someone who spends hours per day using a workstation for
everything from simulating electromagnetic fields to writing business
plans,
the Outlook 2007 editor SUCKS! (...sorry, I write emails one hour every
morning and one hour every night, and this editor ruins my mood in the
morning and keeps me awake at night.) I hate it to the extreme. I have
tried countless remedies, but I still cannot finisht three lines without a
10
- 25 second screen freeze occuring. At first I coped by filling the
keyboard
buffer, but not all of my keystrokes appear when the buffer dumps to the
screen. Now, I compose everyting in Word and copy into Outlook.

What the heck happened? Outlook 2003 never gave me any problems. --Being
a
long-standing veteran of beta software, I know the final product will be
better, I just needed to vent a bit and to let you know how truly bad I
find
the current editor. If nothing else were to changed from beta to
production,
please let the Outlook editor be the one thing that gets fixed.

Best regards --and with good intentions,

DABrown

Thank you your answer Sue.

This is the best way for people like me, who love beta tests...And for
you,
who need explore bugs and crashs before a release.

 

[P Cause]

Thanks, Patrick. Looks very itneresting. I've downloaded and will try it.

What bugs me is why Microsoft doesn't include this kind of thing. They
already know from experience that people want to customize toolbars, menus,
etc. Did they think that people wouldn't want to customize the Ribbon??? It
was obvious and they should have had a way to do this in the product.

But, I guess that is why MVPs are so V!

 

[DABrownCA]

....that's good advice. I am ofthen too stuborn. Then, too, I have beta
tested a lot of software. In all honesty, Office 2007 is the best beta
release I have seen. In a strange way, that made the freezing screen extra
annoying. ...BTW what is causing the freezing?

No problem, when I'm truly running out of patience I usually try to avoid
BETA software ;-)

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
That's good to know. I did not think it would appear in the final release,
....and...sorry if I was rude. I just needed to vent. I tried so many
things
to fix, or at least lessen the problem, that the frustration of the feezing
was compounded by an underlying sense of defeat.

Thanks for replying.

Regards,
DABrownCA

So the only thing you don't like about the editor is that it freezes? Well
then the answer is easy; this is truly a BETA thing. I can assure you that
this won't be in the final release.

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more

-----
Overall I like the new look, feel, and features of Office 2007. Before I
comment on Outlook, let me say there, too, are some nice improvements.
However, as someone who spends hours per day using a workstation for
everything from simulating electromagnetic fields to writing business
plans,
the Outlook 2007 editor SUCKS! (...sorry, I write emails one hour every
morning and one hour every night, and this editor ruins my mood in the
morning and keeps me awake at night.) I hate it to the extreme. I have
tried countless remedies, but I still cannot finisht three lines without a
10
- 25 second screen freeze occuring. At first I coped by filling the
keyboard
buffer, but not all of my keystrokes appear when the buffer dumps to the
screen. Now, I compose everyting in Word and copy into Outlook.

What the heck happened? Outlook 2003 never gave me any problems. --Being
a
long-standing veteran of beta software, I know the final product will be
better, I just needed to vent a bit and to let you know how truly bad I
find
the current editor. If nothing else were to changed from beta to
production,
please let the Outlook editor be the one thing that gets fixed.

Best regards --and with good intentions,

DABrown

Thank you your answer Sue.

This is the best way for people like me, who love beta tests...And for
you,
who need explore bugs and crashs before a release.

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Actually, they thought people wouldn't want to customize. They had usage
statistics from Office 2003 which showed that only a few tens of
thousands of users did any kind of serious customization (changing more
than 3 buttons). Out of 400 million, that just didn't justify the
investment for a built-in customization UI.
I have a post on my blog that details the user customization story (it's
one of the earliest ones) and there is also a post to the official MS UI
blog post about the topic. The numbers are referenced there.

Patrick Schmid