A few days ago I Twittered that I was going back to Outlook after using Windows Live Mail for most of the last quarter of 2007. Well its been hit and miss after going back in that I've still spent most of my time in Live Mail. The reason is simple, it has a much superior search function. Note: I did turn off the active search tool which brings up topics and links based on words and names in an email, that I didn't care for.
However I really needed to get back to my calendar and contact list in Outlook, I have not yet moved most of my contacts to Live Mail as I am trying to thin the herd of names I've collected over the years no longer applicable today. I had been trying to use the calendar on my PDA as an alternative but that wasn't working out well.
So for now I spend my time going between both programs. It would be great for Microsoft to create an newer offline calendar tool that would sync with my Windows Mobile PDA. The online calendar they currently offer is not something that I am willing to invest in, putting all of my appointments, etc. online is not something I want to do right now.
I have stopped using Outlook at home so having an alternative email program while away from the office is nice, sure there is always the web based version but I like having the desktop client. Overall I guess I just like it, and it really is a good mail program, probably one of the better that I've used. From the looks of it also you can tell that Microsoft sort of wants you to move away from Outlook as newer Live Mail accounts can't seem to be used in Outlook.
But I guess its just as well, plus there are other Live services that are pretty good including Windows Live Gallery for photos which is phenomenal from what I've used thus far and although I don't use Live Writer much for this blog I use it for others and it's also quite nice.
So for now its two programs for me, perhaps in the future that will change as one program becomes increasingly more dominant over the other but for now I'll play with my old toys just as much as my new ones! Enjoy your weekend!
