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Solving MS Outlook Pain with Google Calendar, Chrome Extensions

Submitted by Ryan Spoon on February 22, 2010 – 6:38 pmView Comments

I am very frustrated with Microsoft Outlook – particularly the calendar… which, for every scheduling / meeting exchange, requires one to switch between inbox and calendar. As a calendar fills up, this becomes more and more cumbersome – and ineffective. It is a root of daily pain – and for those around me, complaining.

So I posed the question to Facebook and Twitter: what are great examples of plugins that make Microsoft Outlook more efficient / effective:



Here is the solution I have gone with (at least thus far). It shows just how frustrated I am – since it is a lot of work – and, to Jon Steinberg’s point above, it shows the role Google plays in all of this:

1. I set up a sync for my Outlook Calendar with Gmail. It works both ways and is quite easy to set up (see here)…. I wish they did this for contacts too!

2. Using Google Chrome, I installed the Google Calendar Checker w/ Popup. It displays your calendar as a Chrome extension and shows appointments, dates, etc all within a drop down.

This works great if you use dual monitors and have email and browser on separate screens. It’s better than Outlook on a single screen (even this small laptop) – but is still not ideal. At least it allows you to navigate the calendar (particularly by date) without having to lose your inbox position.

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  • JR
    Ryan,

    So your complaint is that Outlook does not show your calendar and inbox in the same window? The horror! Why not open two outlook windows, one with your inbox and one with your calendar and have them open on each screen? What you have done is add a lot of complexity to a simple problem, not sure why you think that is more efficient or effective.

    You added software: Google calendar sync is about as reliable as the recent Toyota's, when it works things are great but then out of the blue it will stop working and you won't know until there is an accident.

    You are relying on an external service -- Google.

    Then you added more software: Chrome with plugins to talk with your Google Calendar but yet another window to toggle between.

    My recommendation is to look into the functionality built into Outlook before you start rigging together solutions that are unreliable and prone to error. Most people complain about Outlook because they just don't understand it's capabilities, which I can understand to a point because it a very robust messaging platform. You could create a better solution natively in Outlook with just a couple view changes. Try this:

    1. Click the "View" menu at the top of the screen, then click "To-Do Bar" followed by "Normal." The To-Do bar will open on the right side of the window.
    2. Click "View" and "To-Do Bar" again, and verify that the word "Appointments" has a check next to it. Click "Appointments" if there is no check to display upcoming Outlook calendar events.
    3.Click the "Arranged By" drop-down menu to re-sort your calendar items by different criteria including the start date and due date. You will now be able to view your selected calendar items in the Outlook to-do pane.
  • The chrome plugin is great - just installed, was not aware of. The latency in outlook switching between mail and calendar is crazy
  • Did you connect Google Calendar and Outlook? Works great and writes both ways so that you can manage from either. Anette likes it too because it can then be shared with others so she can see schedule (ie when I am not at home, in town). Works great.
  • psouza_pvp
    With Outlook you can open multiple windows - each one dedicated to a particular app feature (email, calendar, task, etc.). To open new windows, right click on the icon in the left hand nav bar and select "Open in new window". Then you can have your email open on one screen and calendar on the second.
  • Honored to be in your screenshot. Quick note: lifehacker mentioned this Google / Outlook contact sync last year. Might be worth a try:

    http://lifehacker.com/5193636/go-contact-sync-k...
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