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Outlook 2011 - What's missing

netnothing

netnothing

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Thought I'd start a thread for people to share what's missing in the new Outlook 2011. Overall I'm very happy with the update. Performance, along with the other Office apps is greatly improved. I'm coming from Entourage 2008 and here's what's missing in Outlook 2011 so far:

  • can't customize the Ribbon
  • can't add much to the default menubar
  • can't clear the previous recipients list from showing up in new messages
  • for tasks, you used to be able to just click the Followup button and it would flag a message for followup immediately adding a reminder. Now when you click the Followup button on a message, it flags it, but no reminder is set
  • for tasks you used to be able to have it auto save if you just closed a new task window. Now it will ask to save everytime with no option to autosave.
  • can't seem to set to auto spellcheck when sending a message.

Hoping that Microsoft watches this forum to take notes and improve Outlook.

-Kevin
 
Also (unless I'm missing it) there's no way to have an "OR" in the smart folders. This is a HUGE one! I should be able to make a smart folder that shows unread OR flagged.
Someone correct me if I'm missing it.
 
Here are a couple of things that bother me about Outlook 2011:

1. Why doesn't it show the sender's e-mail address?? When I click on an e-mail and it shows it in the preview pane on the right, it will only show the sender's name above. Only when you hover the mouse over his name will it show his e-mail address - annoying. Am I missing something here??

2. I use Gmail with IMAP. If I receive an e-mail with, say, a 3 MB attachment and want to reply to that message - why will it have to re-download the 3MB attachment in the message in order for me to reply?? I find this highly annoying - is there a way to disable this??

3. Why will it *still* not display e-mails in the Spam box by itself? Only when I click on the Spam folder by myself will it display any new msgs in that box. Why can't it display them by itself just like in Inbox?
 
jon08 said:
Here are a couple of things that bother me about Outlook 2011:

1. Why doesn't it show the sender's e-mail address?? When I click on an e-mail and it shows it in the preview pane on the right, it will only show the sender's name above. Only when you hover the mouse over his name will it show his e-mail address - annoying. Am I missing something here??
Click to expand...

Nope, same thing here.

jon08 said:
3. Why will it *still* not display e-mails in the Spam box by itself? Only when I click on the Spam folder by myself will it display any new msgs in that box. Why can't it display them by itself just like in Inbox?
Click to expand...

Under your account setup go to the Advanced tab. Under Server see if the options:

Check for unread messages in subscribed folders
-or-
Always download complete message bodies - Inbox only

See if either of those will help.

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
Nope, same thing here.



Under your account setup go to the Advanced tab. Under Server see if the options:

Check for unread messages in subscribed folders
-or-
Always download complete message bodies - Inbox only

See if either of those will help.

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Hm, well I do have both of these checked - should I uncheck the "Inbox only" thing (though I don't see how this could affect the Spam folder though)?
 
jon08 said:
Hm, well I do have both of these checked - should I uncheck the "Inbox only" thing?
Click to expand...

Weird. I would assume with the Check for unread messages in subscribed folders option checked....that it would check in that folder.

Do other folders work? Maybe it's just the spam that's different?

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
Weird. I would assume with the Check for unread messages in subscribed folders option checked....that it would check in that folder.

Do other folders work? Maybe it's just the spam that's different?

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Yeah, others work - actually I only receive new mail into INBOX and Spam, but for the latter I would always have to click on it in order for it to display any mail in there.
 
jon08 said:
Yeah, others work - actually I only receive new mail into INBOX and Spam, but for the latter I would always have to click on it in order for it to display any mail in there.
Click to expand...

So if you setup a rule in GMail to have mail delivered to another sub folder....and that works, then I'm guessing Outlook (or GMail) is doing something special with the Spam folder.

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
  • for tasks you used to be able to have it auto save if you just closed a new task window. Now it will ask to save everytime with no option to autosave.
Click to expand...

So in the new task window, they do have a Save and Close button, which essentially does this. I'm just used to CMD+W to close the window and have it auto save.

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
So if you setup a rule in GMail to have mail delivered to another sub folder....and that works, then I'm guessing Outlook (or GMail) is doing something special with the Spam folder.

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Hmm, I guess I'd rather not mess around with that... I guess I'll just have to check the Spam box manually....
 
jon08 said:
Hmm, I guess I'd rather not mess around with that... I guess I'll just have to check the Spam box manually....
Click to expand...

You could just create a filter to check on any messages with a subject TEST OUTLOOK, and have the filter bypass the inbox and apply a folders label to it.

That way you can see whether outlook works correctly or not in showing that new message in the folder.

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
You could just create a filter to check on any messages with a subject TEST OUTLOOK, and have the filter bypass the inbox and apply a folders label to it.

That way you can see whether outlook works correctly or not in showing that new message in the folder.

-Kevin
Click to expand...

How exactly do I go about doing that?
 
jon08 said:
How exactly do I go about doing that?
Click to expand...

Login to GMail online.
Go to Settings in the upper right
On the settings page click on Filters
Click on Create New Filter
In the first step add this to the subject line field: TEST OUTLOOK
Click Next Step
Check Skip the Inbox
Check Apply Label and choose a label you have
(I'm guessing that labels in GMail = folders in Outlook IMAP)?

Click Create Filter

Now, send yourself an email to your Gmail account (From another address since GMail treats emails to yourself differently) with that TEST OUTLOOK subject.

GMail should keep it marked new, skipping the inbox and place it in the folder (label) you specified. Now in Outlook, see if you get the Unread count in that folder.

-Kevin
 
jon08 said:
What label should I choose?
Click to expand...

You can create a new label or use any existing one. Do you have other labels (folders) setup? I'm assuming that each label you have setup, Outlook creates a folder for?

If you don't have any labels (other than Inbox, spam, etc) then create one. Just make sure that label appears in Outlook as a folder.

I don't use GMail with outlook, so I'm not exactly sure how it syncs up. I know GMail's IMAP implementation is a little less than standard! 😀

-Kevin
 
I've seen the new version of Outlook 2011, but I just don't know. Something about it doesn't give me that WOW factor. Interface doesn't look refined at all. Looks like they took a lot of the icons from Entourage, and just made a few under the hood fixes.

Having used Mail.app with Exchange 2007, I have to say I still think it's better. Cleaner, simple...just IMHO...your mileage my vary...
 
nefan65 said:
I've seen the new version of Outlook 2011, but I just don't know. Something about it doesn't give me that WOW factor. Interface doesn't look refined at all. Looks like they took a lot of the icons from Entourage, and just made a few under the hood fixes.

Having used Mail.app with Exchange 2007, I have to say I still think it's better. Cleaner, simple...just IMHO...your mileage my vary...
Click to expand...

They are getting closer. Outlook was a complete rewrite.....so a bunch of stuff looks and acts more Mac-like. Of course....they still Microsoft'd a bunch of things. Let's be honest, you either like or hate the ribbon. Personally, I'm ok with it....it is ugly and it definitely isn't Mac-like. Hopefully they add things that allow us to add more stuff to the menubar so we can hide the ribbon.

The folder area is much better.

The performance for me is killer. Entourage was always a hog. I hated it. I use Apple Mail for my personal accounts, and Entourage (now Outlook) for work. Outlook 2011 screams compared to Entourage. That alone was worth the price.

-Kevin
 
Ok so I sent an e-mail to the test folder/label with the TEST OUTLOOK filter for the e-mail subject and the same thing happens as with my Spam folder - I have to manually click on it for the e-mail to appear in there.

Hm...
 
jon08 said:
Ok so I sent an e-mail to the test folder/label with the TEST OUTLOOK filter for the e-mail subject and the same thing happens as with my Spam folder - I have to manually click on it for the e-mail to appear in there.

Hm...
Click to expand...

Hmmmm.....how long did you wait in Outlook? And did you force a send/receive before clicking on the folder?

-Kevin
 
jon08 said:
Yes I did force it... I waited for a min or two.
Click to expand...

Maybe a bug then? According to the help file:

Check for unread messages in subscribed folders
By default, Outlook checks only for new messages in the Inbox.

If that is checked, then Outlook should be checking all the folders. Maybe another setting on that page is conflicting with it?

-Kevin
 
kbmb said:
Maybe a bug then? According to the help file:

Check for unread messages in subscribed folders
By default, Outlook checks only for new messages in the Inbox.

If that is checked, then Outlook should be checking all the folders. Maybe another setting on that page is conflicting with it?

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Meh, it is checked. Don't know why it doesn't work. I have a Yahoo POP account in my Outlook too and the Spam box works just fine, while on Gmail IMAP it doesn't...
 
Sharepoint list integration
Sharepoint calendar integration

Basically SharePoint integration period.

The Document connection is fine for docs but not anything else.
 
- Calendar workday beginning and ending times can only be on the hour.
- No way to have a faint line between messages, or alternating color bands (like old computer paper), in inbox when you have the preview pane on the bottom (or no preview pane) - just a vast amount of white space where it's hard to visually differentiate each line.
 
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