Outlook
Yes, that Outlook ... the fourth horseman of Microsoft's Office apocalypse. The Grim Reaper of disk space. Virosaurus Rex.
Okay, I'll admit to owning a copy of Microsoft Word. Excel is great if you're actually using it as a spreadsheet, rather than some lazy way of arranging a text document into columns. We'll get to PowerPoint later.
But I won't even pretend to conceal my contempt for Outlook. It's a solution without a problem -- an all singing, all dancing way of having every conceivable "productivity" application open in one cumbersome, RAM-smashing package. It's like keeping your refrigerator door open because you might want to eat at some point. And nobody is hungry enough to dig into a steamin' helping of the obscure Journaling function. Really.
For every Outlook feature, there is a cheaper, safer, more elegant way of getting the job done. For mail, there's the free Mozilla Thunderbird client and any number of industrial-strength alternatives. You'll have no trouble finding a good collaborative calendar, or give Google's new offering a try. Need to make a quick note? No need to bloat that .pst file -- try an onscreen Sticky Note or create a short text file.
So much for fantasy. A lot of us have been chained to Outlook at work, particularly those who have been obliged to utilize Microsoft's ubiquitous Exchange server. But there are ways to streamline your Outlook workflow and get around the program's creaky way of doing things.
That's why I'd like to pass along this handy tutorial on a strategy for managing Outlook without creating a Byzantine hierarchy of folders (which always seem as difficult to keep track of as the messages themselves).
I'll warn you: there's some fancy setup involved. But the article's solution is pretty graceful once you put it all together, and the time you'll burn in organization will be returned manyfold in the cumulative benefits of efficiency. The CNXN ("Connection") main page has some other great ideas for taming the Outlook beast.
There are plenty of other methods to keep your inbox from stacking up and to help you retrieve information quickly when you need it. Spam filters and powerful search functions are your best friend. Anything beats nested folders.
Oh ... about Microsoft PowerPoint. Please, please stop. I was thinking about this the other day -- I bet 95 percent of the hulking PowerPoint files I've been sent over the years had no reason for being. PowerPoint -- properly used -- is pretty good at what it was designed to do: create visual aids for live presentations. How many 60-slide monstrosities (complete with cheesy non-sequitur clip art) must we suffer through? Without a speaker, a presentation is going to be text-heavy. The kindest way to do this is a neatly formatted document. If you don't want or expect the recipient to edit your work, consider a PDF. If it really must be a multi-media presentation, do yourself and your audience the favor of putting it into a Flash or Quicktime movie. Then you know it's right, and your recipient won't have to spend his or her time fumbling through slides and wondering why people feel compelled to use that butt-ugly Comic Sans font so much.
Thank you.
Well, I've taken far too liberal advantage of Kelly's soapbox. She should be back in pocket tomorrow. Thanks for putting up with me the past few days, and please join our group over at PaperFrog now and then.
With all my screed, I should probably close with an awful joke:
So a blogger walks into a bar.
"Bartender," he says, "Gimme a Budweiser."
"Sorry," replies the bartender. "We only have Miller today."
The blogger then unleashes a torrent of opinion: why Budweiser is the best; why Miller is pathetic; why his product choice is more valid than some other idiot's. He drones on and on for about ten minutes while the bartender looks on in complete silence. Finally, the blogger is talked out. There's a long, uncomfortable pause. At length, the bartender speaks.
"Oh, so it's time for Comments?"
Why, yes it is.
