How to Quit Microsoft Outlook, Part III: Finding a New Home - martinezdishoursenot

If you've been following along, you know that I'm divorcing Microsoft Outlook and determination a new home for my contacts, calendars, tasks, and e-mail. Before doing so, however, I made sure to back up all my important Outlook data.

Before we talk Outlook replacements, I deprivation to contribution a couple recent findings. First, suspecting that Outlook 2010's slow, kookie performance was endemic to my PC, I installed it on another system and migrated my PST file (which contains all my data).

Turns out I was rightmost: The program smashed in a affair of seconds rather of minutes, and email indexing worked just fine. Although I'm still peeved by Outlook's performance (or lack thereof) on my primary Personal computer and its hideously complicated settings menus, I've belik been a teeny harsher than necessary. When it works, and when users take the time to acquire and master its many an features, Outlook can be a definite asset to a small-business user.

Second, I've come to recognise that few (if any) substitute programs are quite as sturdy As Outlook when it comes to email, tangency, and calendar management. (I still intend it's terrible at managing notes and tasks, however.) I eff this because I've evaluated a allot of them, and each one has just a couple little flaws that can be hard to swallow.

For example, one of my prima candidates is Astonsoft's EssentialPIM Pro (newly updated to version 5.0), which reminds Maine of an experienced, simpler Outlook. It's a clean, uncluttered, and powerful information coach, one that hind end synchronise with an impressive potpourri of services and devices.

In fact, if you lack to keep Outlook skyward and running while you transition to EssentialPIM, you can set up a 2-way sync betwixt the two programs. Information technology can also synchronize with the likes of Google, Yahoo, and Tooledo, as well as Mechanical man, iOS, Windows, and even Palm devices.

As an iPhone user, that iOS sync is a big deal for me; I've base few other programs that can buoy do this. (Android users take IT easier, as they can synchronize their contacts and calendars with Google's Web-based services.)

So what's the problem with EssentialPIM Pro? Not the toll: Information technology's quite reasonable at $39.95. But IT's a bit weak on the email front, lacking a global-inbox option for multiple accounts and a right-hand reading pane for messages. Nonnegative, it doesn't mark a message as read when you respond to or forward it — a ridiculous oversight that inexplicably plagues other mail clients American Samoa substantially.

As a matter of fact, that's one of my solitary complaints with pica Customer 4 (free for personal habit, $49.95 for Pro), which runs EssentialPIM a very close up second base. Information technology makes simple work of importation data from Mindset (among other sources), though it doesn't actually sync with the program. And it suffers from that irksome reply/forward trouble.

Straight-grained so, eM Customer is arguably the most modern and compelling Lookout alternative available today. Information technology's particularly good at integration with Webmail services like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo, and it supports multiple calendars (both local and cloud). It also supports instant electronic messaging via services like Facebook and GTalk, and the intelligent Sidebar pulls contact details from Facebook when available.

Perhaps best of completely, it offers contact, calendar, and task synchronise with Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Moving devices, though this comes courtesy of the optional Sync2eM service. (The developer offers a exempt 60-day trial; I couldn't happen whatsoever information on pricing later that.)

Those are my top two picks for Outlook replacements. There are others, of run over, most notably Thunderbird (though its future is uncertain), Windows Live Mail (ditto), and Zimbra Desktop.

On the early hand, are desktop-settled PIMs/ring armor managers flatbottom necessary anymore? There's a strong literary argument to be made for keeping all your data in your phone and synced to the cloud, without the hassles of desktop computer software. Obviously on that point's no one-size-fits-all solvent, merely I'm curious to hear which united works best for your situation.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/459959/how_to_quit_microsoft_outlook_part_iii_finding_a_new_home.html

Posted by: martinezdishoursenot.blogspot.com