I can completely believe that the Windows "Outlook" app (formerly "Outlook (new)") was vibe-coded

[mikeymikec]

A customer wanted to create a mailing list to e-mail a bunch of people easily. I found the option to create the list, but trying to add people to that list was interesting: despite the fact that Microsoft e-mail apps / services generally autocomplete recipients based on the list of people you've ever e-mailed, this particular search only searched the contacts list (despite the other fact that most Microsoft e-mail apps / services don't autocomplete with people in your contacts list *unless* you've e-mailed them before).

Therefore we had to find people to add to the customer's list of contacts in order to add them to the mailing list.

Further problems: the list of contacts claims to be sorted alphabetically by surname, and sometimes the contacts list shows surname first then firstname, sometimes the other way around (despite me checking such entries to make sure the information wasn't entered incorrectly), and sometimes it doesn't sort by surname. Also, if you add someone to your contacts list, the search contacts function can't find the newly added contact.

Also, if you find your mailing list (it calls them "contacts lists"), it says you have x "contacts" on it (a correct figure). If you click on that entry, it tells you that you have zero "members" on it. You have to choose the 'edit' option in order to find who's on the list.

This app has been released for how long now, two years? It's still a mess. Does anyone test it before issuing an update for it? Probably not.

I just don't get why Microsoft abandoned Outlook Express, it wasn't "one of the best" e-mail apps, but for a freebie it was fairly capable by the time they EOL'd it. Since then, they've reinvented the wheel like 3 or 4 times and yet they seem to be getting steadily worse. Microsoft Office Outlook isn't great and yet they're looking to replace that with this?

The free Outlook app dev team, I'm fairly sure:

To-do list for the next appointment: Install Thunderbird, import contacts list, spend ten minutes demonstrating basic features successfully.

 

[Steltek]

The astronauts probably agree with you:

https://www.techspot.com/news/111933-humanity-returns-moon-but-outlook-doesnt-work.html

 

[mikeymikec]

To-do list for the next appointment: Install Thunderbird, import contacts list, spend ten minutes demonstrating basic features successfully.

This worked. While I think TB's mailing list management UI could use some work (try adding say 12 people to a mailing list), it's light years ahead of Windows Outlook.

The astronauts probably agree with you:

https://www.techspot.com/news/111933-humanity-returns-moon-but-outlook-doesnt-work.html

I was going to say, "don't astronauts know better?", but to be fair choosing a sensible mail client doesn't have much in common with astronauting. <bleary morning brain thinks for a bit> Don't their IT guys know better?!? Friends don't send friends off into space with vibe-coded rubbish!

 

[lxskllr]

Emacs would be a versatile tool to use while astronauting, and it just so happens it does mail. I can't personally vouch for it, but I can't personally vouch for Outlook either. I know which I'd pick sight unseen though.

 

[Zepp]

outlook is a major part of my regular work place routine. I had to stop using the native app because of lagging and crashing and went to the web version(PWA) which seems to work more consistently

like all MS office apps, outlook feels pretty awful to use in general, a bloated mess jumbled into the ms-ecosystem

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've been using MS Outlook since maybe 1994. I just naturally insist on having it. The "PLanner" or Scheduler is something I use daily, and I keep a list of folders for each of three e-mail addresses.

Oddly, after all these years I only recently became aware of the "filter" feature that eliminates a lot of SPAM and PHISHES.

If I have some anxiety or worry, it's because I'm 78 years old and wonder how long I can comfortably rely on my habitual use of Outlook and other software to manage the "business" of my life.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've been using MS Outlook since maybe 1994. I just naturally insist on having it. The "PLanner" or Scheduler is something I use daily, and I keep a list of folders for each of three e-mail addresses.

Oddly, after all these years I only recently became aware of the "filter" feature that eliminates a lot of SPAM and PHISHES.

If I have some anxiety or worry, it's because I'm 78 years old and wonder how long I can comfortably rely on my habitual use of Outlook and other software to manage the "business" of my life.

Presumably you mean what I call "Office Outlook" (ie. the win32 client that comes with MS Office), and your anxiety about Microsoft's plan to kill it?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Presumably you mean what I call "Office Outlook" (ie. the win32 client that comes with MS Office), and your anxiety about Microsoft's plan to kill it?

I didn't KNOW they had a plan to KILL IT! I've been using that program since about 1994 -- did I already SAY THAT?!! I use the e-mail, the contacts list, and the scheduler. If they "kill it", what the HELL am I going TO DO?!

 

[mikeymikec]

I didn't KNOW they had a plan to KILL IT! I've been using that program since about 1994 -- did I already SAY THAT?!! I use the e-mail, the contacts list, and the scheduler. If they "kill it", what the HELL am I going TO DO?!

Carry on using a standalone version of it? Migrate to one of the other Outlooks? Migrate to Thunderbird? Or even GMail?

fyi

when will classic outlook end - Microsoft Q&A

when will classic outlook end , what date has been given

learn.microsoft.com

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Carry on using a standalone version of it? Migrate to one of the other Outlooks? Migrate to Thunderbird? Or even GMail?

Thanks for the thought. I'd heard of Thunderbird. I never really liked the Outlook Express and didn't think it had the Office version's features. I don't really like web-browser e-mail access, but use it for certain maintenance reasons when I have to.

Also, you might look at my other thread about my friend and her laptop, per making her "Administrator". I was thinking to delete the original owner's administrator account, but OFfice is installed on that system and it would've been installed under the original owner's account.

 

[mikeymikec]

Thanks for the thought. I'd heard of Thunderbird. I never really liked the Outlook Express and didn't think it had the Office version's features. I don't really like web-browser e-mail access, but use it for certain maintenance reasons when I have to.

Also, you might look at my other thread about my friend and her laptop, per making her "Administrator". I was thinking to delete the original owner's administrator account, but OFfice is installed on that system and it would've been installed under the original owner's account.

already responded 🙂

There are other desktop mail clients too like emClient but I personally never advocate that one because it's "is it free or isn't it" kind of fluid state (e.g. you have to register the product if you want to access more than one e-mail account). It looks reasonably friendly though. I've been using Thunderbird for as long as it's been available I think.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

already responded 🙂

There are other desktop mail clients too like emClient but I personally never advocate that one because it's "is it free or isn't it" kind of fluid state (e.g. you have to register the product if you want to access more than one e-mail account). It looks reasonably friendly though. I've been using Thunderbird for as long as it's been available I think.

Well -- you've been a stand-up member-colleague, a prince, scholar and gentleman. Maybe you can tell me if Thunderbird has a "Contacts" feature and a "Scheduler/Planner" feature, or allows you to manage three different e-mail accounts which the owner may need to use. [I use one for magazine subscriptions, another for Amazon and institutional entity correspondence, and another for "friends and fam-damn-ily". ]

 

[mikeymikec]

Well -- you've been a stand-up member-colleague, a prince, scholar and gentleman. Maybe you can tell me if Thunderbird has a "Contacts" feature and a "Scheduler/Planner" feature, or allows you to manage three different e-mail accounts which the owner may need to use. [I use one for magazine subscriptions, another for Amazon and institutional entity correspondence, and another for "friends and fam-damn-ily". ]

Thunderbird has the facility to store multiple address books and its autocomplete facilities work in a much more sane fashion than Outlook's (I have NirSoft's NK2View editor with me in order to tame/migrate Outlook autocomplete).

By 'Scheduler/Planner', I assume you mean a calendaring system and task listing/management, if so, yes.

TB can handle as many e-mail accounts as you like (I currently have 5 in a single TB profile), and can deliver messages to a global inbox for some accounts and per-account-inbox for others (though I've never messed with Global Inbox and IMAP, something tells me that's a non-starter). You also get more control about where it stores per-account sent e-mails, drafts, etc.

Migrating from Outlook (assuming PST files) to TB is a little tricky. Older versions of TB have an import from Outlook feature, so on the occasion I need to do that, I tend to install something like Thunderbird version 17 ESR, do the import, then upgrade it (if you need to do this, I'd also export TB's newly imported contacts list from Outlook as LDIF format as TB's address book storage format has changed a couple of times over the years and attempting to upgrade straight from say 17 to 140 will not work as well as one would like). One thing I've never tried is to import an Outlook calendar into TB; I would hope that your version of Outlook can export a calendar to a standard ics format which you can then import into Thunderbird. The old TB Outlook import feature won't have the facility to import calendars because TB back then didn't have a calendar component.