Help me understand how ‘Delay Send’ works

By Adam Cogan in Outlook 0 Comment

I often have problems giving specific feedback on Microsoft products and this example in Microsoft Outlook is an example.

Delay Send has been a feature I have used since I think the first version back in 1996.

Today I am sending emails to a co-worker at SSW on a Saturday and I see this cool new feature.

I think WOW! And I use it and think this Insight work Microsoft has done is super cool. ⭐

So I wonder how this works and look at “Delivery Options” and then I see this field is out of sync…

  • I think to myself that the old feature I use is client side.
  • I guess the new feature I am trying is server side.
Figure: BTW if I check off that check box “Do not delivery before” it sends the email immediately BAD BUG!!!

So I read the help and am not enlightened. ☹️

Figure: I’d love an “Advanced Help” link to the Microsoft Doc article. If a lot of people are clicking “Advanced Help” it might indicate that the help isn’t quite enough

So let’s tell Microsoft I didn’t like it.

I click “Not useful” and nothing obvious happens (see below image) 

Suggestions:

  • I expect to see a red icon and a text field appear
  • I expect to be able to tell Microsoft why it is not useful.
  • I expect to get a URL that I can track the issue. This could be a nice integration point into Microsoft Rewards
Figure: If giving negative feedback, I would feel more heard if the down thumb went red. At least resize the icon to 3 times bigger so I know it was clicked

Help me remember what to do with an email

By Adam Cogan in Outlook, Outlook for iOS and Android 0 Comment

I’m on a long flight right now traveling from the USA to Australia doing emails.  It would be great to have a feature that made you need to use Microsoft’s iOS app over the build it Apple mail app. I have one that would make me always use it!

I’m forgetful so when I get an email and think “I’ll call them back” or “I’ll add the to the VSTS backlog later” or “Speak to my girls at home” etc
I find I too often forget.

I’d love tags “To call”… “Add to backlog”… “My girls” etc.

Any +1’s on this? Or do you have a better system than your memory?

Figure: Microsoft’s iOS mail app needs custom Tags

Figure: Apple’s iOS mail app does not have custom Tags

Time Zone – Change “All Day Appointment” to be an all day appointment

By Adam Cogan in Outlook 0 Comment

Outlook currenly uses 12 AM to 12 PM for All Day Events. This creates problem when it is for different time zone. A full-day event is a full-day event, no matter what time zone your are in.

It would be useful to use additional time zone feature in outlook to display local time zone without changing time of operating system. Either you can change all day event to local time zone setting.

One best option to handle with this problem is storing all time zone using UTC(Universal Cordinated Time) so that there is no need for any other time settings and appointment can be rendered using local time zone.

Ken Getz says more on this:
Time Zone Disaster – All Outlook Appointments Bite the Dust

Outlook ‘Compact Now’ UI

By Adam Cogan in Outlook 0 Comment

I know I can run ‘Compact Now’ manually. I just did some archiving and ran it now and it took about 12 hours (overnight)… however I should know that I don’t have to.

  1. The UI should explain that this compacting happens in the background. (in the PST’s background idle task).
  2. The UI should so that it is currently running.
    That way you know if the performance problems that you are experiencing are related to compaction.
    Gee Whizzzz?I should not have to ask to show what is going on with my PC?.
    I am just asking for a ‘Polite UI’
  3. The UI should show that this is primarily about space savings, not improving performance.
    After I delete a lot of emails, I should see something different that indicates space can be saved.

    And if the UI is good, after I install Outlook 2007 SP2, and since things changed, (where you allowed the internal free space to grow – for a trade-off to allow for better locality of writes), I would see this in the UI.

    Figure: This UI needs 3 features added

    Figure: This UI needs 3 features added