Everyday Nerd

Ok, so you’re not a big Google Calendar user.  You are 100% Microsoft junkie, and have been using Hotmail since it was created.  Good for you. 

I like by Live Mail account, but am not going to pay for premium features, like syncing my Outlook Calendar for a price.  Well, that will soon be a free service!  LiveSide is reporting that a new version of Outlook Connector is in the works, and it allows one to sync their Outlook Calendar with Live / Hotmail Calendar for Free!

Stay tuned, I’ll post when it is available…

I think I am the happiest I have ever been over a Google product as I am right now!  Having being forced with 1-way sync for such a long time, I’m a giddy school girl now, syncing my Outlook 2007 calendar with Google Calendar.

Google Calendar Sync runs in your system tray, and will sync based on your time schedule.  For those that really just wanted 1-way sync, you can do that too, both Outlook->Google, or visa versa.

You can download Google Sync for Outlook here.

Source: [Inside Microsoft]

One great feature in Gmail is that if someone mentions a date and time in an email, you get a link to create a Google Calendar appointment based on that email. Outlook doesn’t have anything as smart as that, but it does have a quick way to create appointments from emails, one I wish I had known before. Just drag the email from your inbox to the sidebar calendar, dropping it on the date for your appointment.

The new appointment will be created, with the subject of the email becoming the subject of the appointment, and the full text of the email going in the comment area. You have the email for reference when creating the rest of the details for your appointment. It’s convenient and quick, and the best way to get it done.

Here is another IMAP / Outlook 2007 tweaking guide…  From the How To Geek

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After writing about how to setup Gmail IMAP in Outlook, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from users wondering how to make Outlook download the entire message instead of just the headers. You’ll have to navigate through a convoluted set of menus, but it’s really quite simple.

Note: If you have 500 million messages in your Gmail inbox folder you should think strongly about not enabling this, because it will take simply forever to download them all.

From the Tools menu choose Send/Receive, Send/Receive Settings, and then Define Send/Receive Groups. Or you could just hit the Ctrl+Alt+S shortcut key instead of navigating the ridiculous menus.

This will bring up the Send/Receive Groups dialog, which has some interesting options that aren’t relevant here. Choose the Edit button instead.

Almost there…  now click on your IMAP account in the left-hand pane, and then under the Receive Mail Items section choose either to "Download complete items" or "Use the custom behavior defined below".

Personally I’d recommend using the custom behavior and only downloading complete items for the Inbox folder. You’ll have to select "Download complete item including attachments" to flip the switch.

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Source:  Digital Inspiration

IMAP in Gmail is a godsend feature for people who live life inside Microsoft Outlook.

You read messages offline in Microsoft Outlook and they are automatically marked as read on Gmail server the next time you go online. Similarly, when you delete messages in your Gmail Inbox, they disappear from your Outlook Inbox as well.

But the Gmail IMAP integration with Outlook is not so smooth as POP3 access. Several users have complained that Outlook 2007 freezes (or becomes extremely slow) until the synchronization between Gmail server and Outlook data file is complete.

If you are also frustrated with Outlook slowness, read some simple tweaks to help you improve the performance of Microsoft Outlook with Gmail IMAP:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open your Outlook Send and Receive groups*. Select the Gmail account that you have configured with Microsoft Outlook and now click Edit.

2. The next screen will have all the default Gmail labels (like All Mail, Trash, Inbox, Spam, etc) - For Spam and Trash folders, select “Download holders only”. For Inbox and Drafts, select “Download complete item including attachments.” Press OK.

[This prevents Outlook from downloading mails and attachments that are marked as Spam by Gmail]

3. You go back to the previous Send and Receive groups screen. Here adjust the time that Outlook should wait before checking for new email on Gmail server.

Sidenote: If you are a fan of Getting Things Done (David Allen), you should check your email only few times in a day to avoid distractions. Make that number 180 to sync Outlook and Gmail every 3 hours.

4. While the above tweak should solve most of your Microsoft Outlook problems, here’s one extra tip - Work Offline even while you are always connected to the Internet. [File -> Work Offline]

You can always configure Outlook to check for new mail frequently even while in Offline mode as show in Step 3 above.

The biggest advantage of working with Gmail IMAP and Offline Outlook is that your local Outlook commands (like Opening messages, Reply, Delete, Forward, etc) will be much faster because Outlook will not connect with Gmail servers before executing your command.

Quick Tip: If you want Microsoft Outlook to load the default Gmail Inbox folder during start-up, go to Tools -> Options (Other) -> Advanced Options and browse for your Gmail Inbox folder.

*If the shortcut Alt + Ctrl + S doesn’t work in your version of Outlook, go to Tools -> Send/Receive, Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/Receive Groups.