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Should I DUMP Outlook?

08 Jan 2008 Sterling (Jeremy Frandsen) 42 Comments

BLOG travel 1 One of my main goals in business for this year is to make everything simple and easy and accessible. I’m done staying with programs and ways of doing things just because I always have or simple because I am too lazy to make the change. One of those programs is Microsoft’s Outlook. I’m not a Microsoft hater or a Outlook hater, I found MANY in my quest to find the simplest way to deal with my email, in fact, I am quite the opposite, but here is the problem I have been having; I love my desktop computer.

I love my big desk space so that I can have everything I need, exactly where I want it with plenty of room around me. I like my ergonomic keyboard and 24′ flatscreen monitors. I haven’t had to think of dumping Outlook before since I generally work from the same computer day in and day out, but things have changed.

It’s a pain taking all my equipment with me to a seminar, there is never enough overhead cabin space on the planes for my room full of equipment.

There is never enough room in my hotel rooms.

The seminar planner hate it when you set up an office at the back of the hotel ball room.

Don’t even get me started about how uptight tropical resorts are about using all that power off their little generators…

My life has changed and I have had to start using my laptop since my traveling has gone up significantly, hence the need for an online solution. I have enough different sites that it makes going online and checking each email address in the hosts online email checker too time consuming.

At several of my Mastermind Groups the guys are all going Gmail and just forwarding all their email to their Gmail account.

When Jay and his wife, Melanie, stayed with me she went Gmail before my eyes.

Seems to me that is certainly is the trend, but I wanted to see what the community thinks.

Should I dump Outlook for Gmail?

This post is in: Automating, Streamlining and Outsourcing

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42 Comments Leave a Comment


You can use a gmail account and Outlook. You can input your gmail details into Outlook and it’ll download your emails, allow you to send messages etc as normal adn still view your gmail online.


@Dave,

I do it that way now, but I want only one place to go to get all my email and it has to be online. If Outlook could be viewed online, without using GoToMyPC or the like, I would just do that (and have in the past). I sift through my email and put the email in files as I go so I wouldn’t want two places to have to do that.

I sort using the GTD method so that I don’t have to see an email twice unless it will take some time to accomplish what is in the email. If I had to do the same thing in two places I’m afraid the dog would constantly run in terror at my display of impatience!


Ah, well then just definitely stick to gmail. It has to be the best email program available for free online.


I think you are mixing apples and oranges here.
The problem isn’t Outlook necessarily, but that you sound like you have IMAP and POP email accounts.
Solution: Go GMAIL (be sure to use IMAP feature) and forward all your accounts to GMAIL.
Then, configure your home desktop email application and your laptop email to access your GMAIL account.
Having to login and use a web interface (even GMAIL) is a major pain, but if you use the same email application on your desktop and laptop using IMAP, you’ll have much better control over the email.
BTW, I prefer to use Thunderbird over Outlook


@Steve,

So, the way you just mentioned will basically sync up my desktop & Gmail & Laptop, so I don’t have to go through the pain of moving files twice? If so, is there a procedure list you have to do this simply?

I used to use Thunderbird and there was something that made me go back to Outlook, not sure what is was anymore…

Thanks!


I don’t think that I should have to go in and name my servers. I don’t use it myself, but it seems like a lot of people with websites do


@lincolnb,

I’m not sure what you mean by:

“I don’t think that I should have to go in and name my servers.”


I totally agree with Steve. Get a Gmail account, set it up to use IMAP, and then use Outlook when you are at home. Heck, you could use Outlook on your laptop as well and everything will still synchronize with everything else. What you see on your desktop Outlook will be the same as on your laptop which is the same as on your Gmail.

Here is Gmail’s explanation of their IMAP service:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=75725


And there is the problem with just letting things be sub-standard. I could have had it all be exactly as I needed it, instead I let my standards be lower in that one area…

@Chris,

Thanks for the link and thanks to everyone who commented. I hope this was as useful for others as it was for me!!


I’d say if you don’t have an MS-Exchange account you can easily dump Outlook!

I use GMail as my main mail client for all my addresses since I could easily forward them all to GMail and created accounts form within GMail in a way I could send e-mails with different sender addresses. This is the coolest Gmail thing and it centralized all my e-mails and saved my time dealing with different Webmails.
In the other hand it is big (6299 MB as of today!) and features many other cool things.

If you could just solve the issue of html signature (e.g. a Firefox plugin) then it beats the hell out of outlook!


One more thing!

Before struggling with any mail client (outlook, thunderbird, ..) try the web interface only for a week or so. you’ll appreciate the freedom you have:
- you don’ t need a mail client at all, open-source or not!
- you save hdd space (not a big deal)
- with google notifier you’d know when exactly and e-mail received.
- you save ram by not having any mail appz open all the time
- you have 100% freedom of mobility
- it’s just an extra tab in your browser (which is always open I bet!)

I tried almost all famous clients and none of the gave me the satisfaction I get from GMail web interface. Common I even use it on my NokiaE61!


This doesn’t really speak to Sterling’s question, but…

Over the past few days I have been very painfully reminded of a major advantage I’m missing out on by not using a Gmail account as my primary public email. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my main email (a POP account through one of my hosts) stopped working. In fact, it is still out of commission and going on five days now.

I think it’s safe to say that Gmail’s servers are more dependable. If I used Gmail accounts, I probably wouldn’t be having this problem.

I wonder what perception that would give if you did make all of your business email’s Gmail accounts.


Yes Gamil is very good.
I’ve shifted most of my webmail to my Gmail acount.
-It’s very easy to do and you can also use a custom “From” field or
-send using the original email address or your own Gmail address.
-Put colors to identify mail from diferent email addresses.

I highly recommend this. It has just made my online life so much easier.


I feel your pain Sterling. I am a longtime Outlook user (yes, I am overly dependent), always on the run and would like my email (from multiple accounts on multiple servers), favorites, contact, calendar, and tasks synchronized between desktop, laptop, and as a guest on someone else’s computer. Here are two questions I pose to our group:
1. Does gmail’s IMAP service give me the freedom I need?
2. What about a hosted solution for Outlook? I have seen them for a few bucks per month.

Look forward to hearing from all of you.


Hi Will,

1. Yes! IMAP service will keep a you inboxes synchronized
2. Trust me, you don’t wanna try OWA (Outlook Web Access)! To be fare it has a neat UI but it need ActiveX (typical Microsoft!) which means it only work properly on IE and if you use Firefox, Safari, etc you’ll see a text nasty UI that does nt even support html messages!

I used Outlook for many years but finally fed up with taking my 700+ MB inbox around


Hi Sterling,

I’d say Gmail is the way to go, especially Gmail for domains. With Gmail for Domains you can even assign sub-accounts to your team, with sizes of up to 6GB per account (the free one, as of this time), synchronize your team via the built-in Calendar or Googlepage, discuss right then and there using GChat, and be able to access it on your Blackberry as well.

I personally use Gmail for Domains for my own company (distantsupport.com), and now considering upgrading at least my own account to the paid version ($50/year, comes with a capacity of 25GB, and most importantly, 24/7 assistance, including phone support for critical issues).


I run an online and eBay business (www.3rdPO.com) and used Outlook and folder routing for years. The nature of eBay is full of constant email contact with customers, it is just a beast. I was fearful of switching to anything, but knew as I moved forward that a “mobile” lifestyle was necessary.

Gmail was the answer and I can not believe it took me so long to finally do it! At first I was going to try to keep Outlook in some capacity, simply because I had all the folders and files and stuff. But then I started thinking that if I was going to clean things up, I might as well take the whole pill.

So this is like the Matrix movie, which pill do you want to take, the red one or the white one? LOL.

Here are the pros for making a full move to Gmail. Mobile access on your cell phone is fantastic. Spam filters are outstanding. The ability to search email instantly is incredible. Logging into email anywhere on any computer is invaluable.

Suddenly, all the things I needed were instantly accessible from any computer, not just my own. I could go on and on about why this was a good change for me and my whole organization. But let me give you a few comments…

1) If you are going online solution, then go all the way. Don’t leave anything on your home PC/Outlook any longer unless you have too.

2) Migrate as much to Gmail as possible and keep the Outlook up for at least 30 days. Have a backout plan if the Gmail is not working for you.

3) Take the time to learn the new platform. The change from Outlook to Gmail is a paradigm shift in the way you work. Use that to your advantage and tailor the new system to fit all your needs for an office on the go.

4) Look at the enterprise systems of Google Apps (http://www.google.com/a/enterprise/) if you want to get serious about making your business life more portable. It is a step above Gmail and is what a business should really look at for a well rounded solution.

Good Luck, it is a journey worth taking,

John


I’m going through Outlook detox right now. I’ve been a “personal” gmail user and “business” outlook user for years. Now that I’m self employed and using your techniques :) I’m fully g’mailed on all accounts. I run about 8 email accounts through gmail currently. There’s a GTD plugin for gmail out there. Have you seen it? I just miss the nifty and integrated html signatures in Outlook but otherwise…I could care less now. I’d like to see a blackberry sync tool for goog contacts. Heck, that probably exists too.


Another benefit of Gmail is the fact that it uses labels instead of folders for organization. If something doesn’t fit neatly into one category or folder, you can tag it with as many labels as you want.

If you do go with Gmail (and I highly recommend that you do), I recommend using it with Firefox. There are a number of great extensions that add functionality and usability. Some that I recommend are:
- Gmail manager
- Customize Google
- GTD Inbox (you should especially like this one as you guys are such huge proponents of the GTD methodology.)

There are also utilities that will allow you to upload your archived email from your current desktop client to your Gmail account, allowing you to centralize everything.

If you are a belt and suspenders type of guy like me, I would also recommend running Thunderbird with your Gmail account. I don’t use it for the interface (I simply do everything through Gmail’s web interface), but I like the security of having Thunderbird downloading a copy of everything to my hard drive incase Gmail’s servers tank. Highly unlikely, but I like to be safe.


Has everyone abandoned hotmail? You can do the same with Hotmail. When you use Outlook, you see all your email.

But the other question I have is who has a good recomendation for a “virtual hard drive”? I have a lot of files that I pass back and forth from laptop to desktop to office laptop, etc. If I could map a network drive and keep all my files in one place (as long as there is a backup plan there), that would be awesome!


@Darrin,

I use BeInSync.com. I have used them for about 4 months now, works perfectly.

I have never used hotmail…


Why not get a Blackberry? You can use Outlook when you are at home if you want, but still get all the e-mails to your blackberry anyway. It works with normal POP3 accounts as well as internet services like GMail. You can have it set up with more than one account (I have 3!), and it is clever enough to reply using the same e-mail address as the incoming e-mail.
Many of the larger telecoms companies in the UK have their own Blackberry service, so you don’t need to go down the route of the larger organisations and get Blackberry Enterprise Server. Go for the new Curve 8310 and you even get GPS too!

Mark


Gmail should help your needs right now.
A lot of the organisational features already mentioned
Good spam blocking
A whole 2.0 gb of storage and you are allowed to use rich text easliy


The whole world seems to be migrating to Google. How is everyone coordinating their information with their mobile devices e.g. Blackberry? How is everyone accessing necessary files?


@Everyone!

Thank you so much for all you have shared! I think I’m now ready to migrate to Gmail. Now all I have to do is find the time to go through the process!

We might have to do a Gmail Usage Tips post at some point so we can all share the ways we have tweaked it to fit our needs, what do you think?

@Mark,

I have never done the Blackberry thing. I like my screens BIG. I’m a HUGE multi-monitor guy and my laptop screen is as big as you can get. To go to a small screen like that would kill me…so it seems.

Watching Jay and Melanie twitter from there little mobile devices did make me think about having one…almost…


Another tip..
I just moved all my company email accounts to gmail or google apps. Now they have all the great functionality of a gmail account and look more professional ala wade @ wpest.com. Best of all, completely free and quite easy to set up. Very cool.


Thank you so much for this information. By consolidating to GMail you have made my life Soooo much easier!


I used to use eudora but when i got my new labtop i decided to give the windows mail a go. Ive been more than happy with it. Though it does like to throw a few non junk mail into the junk mail folder but other than that its been great. Not that i can fault eudora but as windows mail already came with vista i gave it a whirl and have been more than happy with it


Gmail has simplified my life and I am able to read all my mail from various domains within the interface and archive it for all eternity. My goal is to be completely location less and fluidity between computing environments is a key element. Simplify, simplify, simplify.


I just converted my email over to gmail on Friday and am liking it so far. It has a different page format then your typical Outlook, Yahoo, or Hotmail email boxes and so it will take an adjustment period when looking for new email. The main reason for this is that the enter thread of an email is contained in one line of text in your inbox. This makes looking for an email quicker and the entire email storage and retrieval process is organized for you. My vote is to go for the gmail account.


It’s been a week or two since switching to gmail. I have to say that I absolutely love it. Also, I’ve started using gdocs. It’s so cool how you can publish documents to the world. I’ve done that for setting up email accounts and so forth for my web design/development business. I highly recommend taking a good look at gmail and gdocs


Consider Outlook/Exchange server. I use 1and1 Exchange package and easily sync between three computers, including e-mail, calendars, contacts, etc. I use my multiple gmail accounts for archival purposes, but they all forward o my exchange server.


@John,

1and1 Exchange only allows you to have one email address, do you just forward ALL email to that one? What if you have to send an email using one of the forwarded emails?


The storage provided by Gmail is pretty good. Some people actually send themselves attachments with pics, music, or whatever and use it as their online storage area.

If you are looking for true online storage, box.net just took another 6mil in funding so they will be around for a while. The biggest thing to look for with web based storage is whether the company will go kaput or not so use your best judgement. I would not recommend Omnidrive as they have had downtime and other problems and look to be entering the deadpool soon….beware.


[...] The blog I mentioned above (Thanks Sterling and Jay) Internet Business Mastery - Should We Dump Outlook [...]


Since I know you guys are into GTD, it seems appropriate to point out that Gmail’s inefficiencies actually support moving to a more GTD-like approach.

To wit, the fact that it uses labels and colors instead of folders for organization means that it’s almost NECESSARY define the necessary action or usefulness of the email when it comes in, determine next actions, then delete.

In my experience, Gmail is NOT a useful tool for those who want to keep every email they’ve ever received. (Why anyone would want to accumulate that much crap to filter is beyond me, but anyway…)

Life is, indeed, simpler with Gmail.


@Devin,

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you are definitely right. Thinking back, I see how that is true of my use of GMail over the past couple weeks.

I was kind of bummed not to be using the new “GTD-friendly” features in Outlook 2007, but really I think GMail is more conducive to that process.


I’ve had only a little bit of experience with other email clients/providers but I do like gmail’s interface and functionality with other programs.

That said, how is Windows Live mail? I hear its a marked improvement over hotmail, but I haven’t really checked it out.


Although, if you’re looking for a reasons NOT to continue using gmail, this argument is pertinent if over-heated:

http://dynamics.org/~altenber/CURRENT_AFFAIRS/GMAIL/Blog.html

The guy’s on a bit of a rant, but he makes an interesting point regarding Gmail’s ownership of the content of emails you write:

“But now, there is a market for the content of your mail. If I write you at your GMail account, I know that GMail.com will data-mine what I write, and use the content to send advertisements that will be displayed along with my letter to you and billed to their advertisers. I can’t simply write to you.”

But gosh darn it, Gmail is so useful and intuitive! :-)


You may want to rethink windows live mail if you have more that 250 in your list that way you can see the emails without having to go through hoops. You may want to see my blog at orinwalker.com about the latest hotmail


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