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Having used Google Desktop and Konfabulator for some time, it occurred to me that Outlook is missing some key features. First, Outlook should allow you to pin the calendar to your view. If I want to check the calendar, I need to click “Calendar” , and then click back to “Inbox” , my default view. It would be nice to be able to pin some stuff to all views. If Google allows you to move stuff around with the click of a mouse from a web UI, surely this can be done with an locally installed application. This would eliminate my need for a calendar widget.
Additionally, MS should promote the development of plugins for Outlook. I know they have an SDK, but it’s not quite the open environment of Google’s Desktop or Konfabulator. A simple weather widget for Outlook would be nice. All of this should be pretty easy too since Outlook is tightly integrated with IE.
MS doesn’t need help making money but if they integrated widgets into Outlook, they just might find more copies of Outlook installed on people’s computers (and not just at the office).
It would be really nice if you could print an envelope from Outlook contacts. As it is now, without doing an “Merge” to can just copy and paste each eliment of the envelop into Word and then do an envelope. How stupid is that??? You can make calls from Outlook, you can schedule tasks and appointment, but by golly, don’t try to print an envelope from the program that contains all of your contact addresses.