Why Outlook 2010’s conversation view doesn’t work

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Let’s be clear: Outlook 2010 is good. Very good, actually. And, certainly, if you instructed me to write an email client I’d come back to you with a white box with “INBOX” written on the front in biro.

But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been driving me up the wall.

Outlook 2010 tries to be all clever by bundling messages into “Conversations”. This is useful for when someone in the office CC’s everyone in on which pub to go to and you spend Friday afternoon battling a deluge of witty put-downs. In Outlook 2010 everything with the subject line “Let’s go to the pub!” is rolled into one conversation and you have to scroll through your inbox less. (more…)

Microsoft Office 2010: Word 2010’s print dialog

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

I’ve already blogged today about the excellent new meeting request view in Outlook 2010, so I hope you’ll forgive a second Office 2010 entry for the day. However, I had to share this (note – to get a clearer picture, click on the screenshot):

There are a number of things I like about this dialog, which is what you’ll see if you press Ctrl + P or click File |Print, where File is the new-style Office icon that sits at the top-left of the Word window.

And prime among them is the automatic print preview feature. (more…)

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010’s new meeting request view

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Outlook 2010 is undoubtedly the most changed of all the Microsoft Office 2010 applications, benefiting from the much-heralded Ribbon interface. Although my first reaction on seeing it was slight shock, as you’re presented with a mass of options when often all you want to do is Reply or Delete, I’m already seeing advantages.

Primary among these, so far as I’m concerned, is the new meeting request view. Not so much in the organisation phase – there are no major innovations there – but in the view that’s presented to invited members. (more…)