Improving Your Outlook

No matter what your specific PIM needs are, Outlook offers at least some functionality to meet them. The rest of the chapters in Part II, "Outlook as a Personal Information Manager," explain all the features outlined in this chapter, as well as provide detailed instructions on all the major components of Outlook so that you can put Outlook to work for you.

If you've been wondering whether you should abandon your paper-based PIM for Outlook, you should ask yourself several questions before you completely abandon a system that's working for you:

  • Do you spend the majority of time at your computer? If you spend the majority of your work day away from your desk, migrating from a paper-based PIM such as the Franklin Planner system to Outlook might not be a complete solution for you. After all, if you depend on your PIM solution to tell you where you're supposed to be at any time of day, you need to be able to see your Calendar, whether you're at your desk or on the road. If you spend a good portion of your time away from your desk, you should move to Outlook as your PIM only if you also carry a PDA.

  • Do you carry a PDA? If you do spend a good portion of your day away from your desk, you can still use Outlook as a PIM if you carry a PDA that synchronizes with Outlook. During the synchronization with Outlook, the PDA receives a copy of every appointment, contact, task, note, and possibly email that you receive on your local computer. Some PDAs can synchronize wirelessly with your local computer, allowing for near real-time visibility of the information on your computer. Any changes you make to items stored on your PDA are synchronized with your desktop computer the next time you connect wirelessly or dock your PDA in its synchronization cradle. A PDA working with Outlook can completely replace a paper-based PIM product.

  • Do you need to share information with others? A paper-based PIM product can work quite well for an individual who doesn't need to share information with colleagues. If you need to share notes, contacts, tasks, or appointments with others, using Outlook as a PIM enables you to share folders through Exchange or simply send tasks to others over Internet email.

  • Do you find yourself entering information in Outlook and a paper-based PIM? If you're entering information in two places already, you'll probably find it quite easy to transition away from your paper-based PIM product. Simply task yourself with entering all your PIM information in Outlook, and commit to keeping the information updated as reliably as you updated your paper-based PIM.

Even though Outlook has a variety of features that make it a good personal information manager, some people work better with a paper-based PIM product. Outlook isn't the PIM for everyone, but it contains such robust PIM features that it can meet the majority of most PIM needs.



Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
ISBN: 0789729563
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 426

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