Well I have been using Office 2010 for months now. According to Microsoft its is faster than the previous incarnation, by up to %50 on some tasks. Having used each component a few times by now, I can say that is generally true. Ironically the piece of the suite that get the most use is the one that seems to have received the least tuning.
I am talking about Outlook.
The program that every cubicle drone, every CFO and many of us work at home types have open all day every day. Sure when it is sitting there it is not too much of resource hog. Just idling along waiting to inform you that you haven’t cleared half a dozen things from your calendar today. But as soon as you bring it full screen and start doing things, well it sucks. It sucks big time. It is slow. It is erratic. it is annoying.
Let me count the ways.
When I ask it to send/receive, well that button is no longer front and center. I have to go to the send and receive menu, then click send-receive all.
Simply opening my RSS feeds can take an inordinate amount of time. But then the real fun starts. A flurry of notifications that it is “checking with the server”. I assume the RSS server from whence these messages originate. In case you are in the dark. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s supposed to be lightweight and breezy, like a summer romance. Microsoft has so encumbered RSS that it creaks and moans just trying to deliver some text, yes TEXT to you.
Now if you are so assertive to think you can click hyperlinks in an RSS feed, The boys in Redmond have thought otherwise. It may click and go away. Dumping your whole RSS message. It may generate a series of “checking with the server” messages then finally follow on to the link. Or it may naturally go its course and open a new tab in your browser du jour, displaying your desired craigslist ad.
Which brings me to my: “Neat Little Trick of the Week.
Saving Craigslist searches a la eBay. This is so simple and easy I can’t believe everyone isn’t already doing it. All you need are an RSS reader that is capable of keeping itself updated with RSS feeds.
Do a search on Craigslist. Pretty much any category.
go to the bottom right hand corner. See the orange square that says “RSS”? Click it!
The RSS program you have configured on your system will pop up and grab that RSS feed. It may or may not ask you for more info. When I used My Yahoo it was a royal pain to get to work, but it could. Outlook has been doing this for a little while and it generally is nice. I like having multiple feeds pointing to one folder. So my searches for Ovation Magnum, Musicman Sterling and Mesa D180 all point to “bass guitar” in Outlook. Give it a try, and beat everyone else in your town to the punch.
