If you find Outlook’s Contacts program ponderous and its Calendar overbearing and underpowered, consider switching to Google contacts and calendaring apps.
Google’s free tools are lighter and more flexible — and easily accessed via your phone or tablet.
Good reasons to keep it simple and flexible
In many ways, Microsoft’s Office-based mail, calendaring, and contacts system still harkens back to the era of Big Iron. For example, sharing Office-based email, contacts, and calendars between PCs, phones, and/or tablets typically requires Microsoft’s back-end Exchange Server. And Microsoft’s protestations to the contrary, Exchange Server is big, messy, and expensive.
You can let Microsoft manage the back-end services by subscribing to its Office 365 service (see the Feb. 14 Woody’s Windows story, “Software SmackDown: Office 2013 vs. Office 365.”) Outlook Web Apps, included with both Exchange and Office 365, can give you access to contacts and calendars through any Web browser — desktop or mobile — but is relatively cumbersome. And if you want all Outlook Web App features, you have to use Internet Explorer. Imagine that on a phone. Blech.
Outlook will run on Windows 8 tablets (and soon on Windows RT tablets), but the current contact/calendaring tools are poorly designed for small screens and big fingers. Other Microsoft options for contacts and calendaring include the wholly inadequate Metro apps in Windows 8 or the anemic Web-based Outlook.com.
For individual PC users (and for many businesses) those options seem too complex, limiting, and expensive — especially when compared to Google Apps. Months ago, I switched over to using Google Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks — and can’t imagine going back to those inglorious days of multi-gigabyte Outlook PST files. And though I like Outlook.com and its Metro-inspired Mail, People, and Calendar apps, I much prefer the Google Apps interface and approach. And they’re all nicely tied to the Big Kahuna: Gmail.
I do have a few quibbles with Google’s environment. Apps names can be a bit obtuse at first. For example, what’s the difference between “Tasks” and “Calendar”? They are, in fact, not the same thing. But by and large, I find that Google Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks run rings around Outlook. Try them both and decide for yourself — they’re free!
The Going Google saga — past and future
This is the fourth installment in the series chronicling my move from an all-Microsoft environment to, in my opinion, a superior mix of Windows and Google Apps.
I still use Office. Writing in Word doesn’t make much sense in many situations these days, but it’s still the “standard.” Some of my, uh, less enlightened clients require submissions in DOCX format. Heaven knows why. Most of the stuff I write is bound for the Web or for print publication.
Word docs headed for the Internet invariably get stripped of all formatting — converted into plain text — because Word crosses so horribly into HTML. The text then gets marked up with some HTML-friendly package, and soon the document appears on the Web. Crazy. With a few rare exceptions, Word is, and always has been, more hindrance than help in putting words on the Internet. (Not all my clients are Luddites; I write Windows Secrets columns in HTML templates, using Notepad++ [site].)
Word-based manuscripts headed for print publication typically go into InDesign (or its ancient predecessor, PageMaker), PagePlus, or QuarkXPress, all of which tolerate Word files. Their Word import filters have improved over the years, but it’s still a struggle.
As for the other Office apps, Excel still has lots of big spreadsheet savvy that Google Sheets can’t match — especially for complex applications. So I still use Excel fairly frequently.
But I wouldn’t go back to Outlook if Moses hand-delivered the commandment on a tablet. In short, unless I have compelling constraints not to, I use Google Apps.
If you haven’t been following the “Going Google (apps)” series or you need a refresher, here’s where we’ve been — and where we’re going:
Part 1: Move your mail — Getting started with Google Apps begins with setting up a Gmail account. This story details how to get started and how to move your mail to Gmail.
Part 2: Move your docs — I discuss specifically how to migrate Office files to the cloud and Google apps.
Part 3: Share/collaborate — Google Apps makes collaborating on documents exceptionally easy. Here’s how.
Part 4: Contacts/Calendar (this article)
Part 5: Backup and privacy — My last column in this series will discuss the legitimate fears people have about working in the cloud.
There will undoubtedly be other stories on the battle between Google and Microsoft over productivity applications. We do live in interesting times.
It all starts with setting up a Google account
Google Apps is a sort of all-inclusive package, with editions for business, consumers, education, and nonprofits. You don’t need to use all the component applications (such as Gmail), but you will have to set up a Google account. And the simplest way to do that is to start with Gmail, as detailed in Part 1 of the series. Whether you actually use Google’s email app is up to you, but all Google Apps applications are tightly linked — both by their interfaces and under the covers.
The cloud-based Google Drive (site) is another integral part of the Google Apps system. It’s where all the files and data you create with Google Apps live. You can access your files from any browser or download a local Google Drive client for PCs, Androids, or iOS devices. It’s simple, fast, and free.
On Android and iOS devices, information in Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks appears in all the places you’d expect: your phone’s contact list, your Gmail account, and the built-in, native calendar. There are numerous mobile apps that work with Google Apps.
The most common way to open Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks on PCs and Macs (or the ChromeOS) is via Gmail on your preferred browser. Just load Gmail and click the small down-arrow next to the red Gmail heading, as shown in Figure 1. (You can also access Contacts by entering contacts.google.com, but it oddly doesn’t offer a link to Gmail or Tasks.) But Firefox and Chrome also offer many browser add-ins that work with both Contacts and Tasks.
Figure 1. Contacts and Tasks are most easily accessed via Gmail.
To view your Google Calendar, go up to the black menu bar at the top of the Gmail window and click Calendar. A separate browser tab will open, displaying something similar to Figure 2.
Figure 2. Google Calendar and Gmail have nearly identical looks.
Your Google Contacts app has a full-page interface, too, that has the same look as Gmail and Calendar.
Organizing information with Google Tasks
Google Tasks works a bit differently than Calendar and Contacts. You access it in Gmail with the same dropdown you used for Contacts. But instead of a new page, you get a small pop-up box with to-do-list style items. In Calendar, your Tasks list shows up in a right-hand pane.
Just about anything can be put onto a Tasks list, and you can create as many different lists as you like. For example, you can create a Tasks-based grocery list: eggs, milk, butter, hummus. Other Tasks lists could hold software-validation keys, or credit-card numbers, or the hobbies of all your great-aunts and -uncles.
Tasks can also appear as entries in calendars, but only if you assign them a due date. Google is smart about setting due dates: if you create a task labeled “8/14 buy mascarpone,” that task will automatically be given a due date of 8/14 — and it’ll show up both in the calendar and on the Tasks list.
Those are the stock Web interfaces for Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks. For the mobile apps, go to your phone’s or tablet’s store. Blackberry and Windows Phone users are supported, too (more info), but to a lesser extent.
Shoveling People into Contacts, Calendar to Tasks
With a Google account set up, it’s time to migrate your calendar and contacts entries. But before you do so, take a minute and consider what you’re doing — especially if you’re importing from Outlook.
Most new Google Apps users simply import every one of their Outlook contacts. If Outlook’s Contacts list is well maintained — you’ve been fastidious about your contacts list, keeping it neatly pruned and up to date — that approach is just fine. But 99 percent of the Outlook users I know have Contacts lists full of moldy information. Now’s a good time to clean up your contacts data. Start with the contacts that are most important or frequently used and leave the dregs in Outlook. If you keep Outlook on your system, you can always bring over other contacts as you need them.
Most people’s calendars, I assume, are relatively clean. But I suggest starting your Google calendar as a clean slate. (Don’t worry; Google has all the standard built-in country-holiday calendars, religious-holiday calendars, and just about every other calendar option you can imagine.)
If you’re confident that everything — mail, calendar, contacts — in Outlook is pristine, Google has an import wizard that does all the heavy lifting. In fact, Google has an entire coven of wizards that will move your data from Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Mac Mail.
You can transfer mail, calendar, and contacts at once or move each category in separate steps. You can import mail sent after a specific date and even import deleted mail/calendar/contacts entries. Consult Google’s detailed explanation (PDF) of what gets moved. You can step through the entire process following Google’s online description and support pages.
To transfer just a handful of contacts from Outlook to Google, I suggest these steps:
Export contacts to a CSV file: In Outlook 2010 or 2013, click File and Options. In the left column, click Advanced and then scroll down to the Export section. Click the Export button. (In Outlook 2003, 2007, and Outlook Express, click File/Import and Export/Export/Next.) In the Import and Export Wizard, choose Export to a file and click Next. Select Comma Separated Value (DOS), then click Next again. Scroll through the directory until you find Contacts; highlight it and click Next for the final time. Put the exported .CSV text file someplace handy.
Edit exported entries: Double-click on the exported CSV file; it should open in Excel. Delete any rows that you don’t want to import. Close the file and click Save Changes.
Import edited CSV file into Google Contacts. Fire up your browser and go into Google Contacts or Calendar (start with Gmail, if need be). Click the More button (above the contacts list) and then click Import. On the left, at the bottom, click Import Contacts. Click Browse and navigate to the edited CSV file. Click Import.
Step 4. You’re done. It might take Google Contacts a few minutes to import the file, but I’ve never had it hiccup on me. Your newly imported contacts will show up in your Web browser, phone, and tablet. You can go back any time and pick up more contacts using the same technique.
You can also import Calendar events, though the process is a bit different. A Google help page has the steps. These imports are a one-way trip: changes to a Google Calendar event or contact won’t show up in Outlook. But you really didn’t want it to, did you?
Some fun tips and tricks of the online age
A quick look around the Web will show an astounding number of apps that tie directly into Google’s Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts. Because — in theory — your information’s in the cloud, stored in a form that conforms to independent standards and protected by authentication that’s hard to break, developers are free to write apps that slice and dice Google information in amazing ways. But you can still control access to that information without squirreling it away in hard drive–based Outlook PST files.
Here are two free Google Apps offerings you might want to look at immediately. (Both apps are Google Chrome add-ons — they won’t work in Internet Explorer or Firefox.)
Gmail Offline beta (site): This add-on lets you work locally with your Google mail, calendar, and contacts when there’s no access to the Internet. Gmail Offline then syncs when you’re connected again.
Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer (site): In Chrome, click on a link to a Word, PDF, or PowerPoint document, and the appropriate Google app appears, with your chosen document open and ready to edit.
You’ll find other useful add-ons in the Google Apps Marketplace.
The next installment: Next time, I’ll talk about the two problems with Google Apps — and cloud services in general — that draw the most angst: privacy and backup. I promise I won’t mention the NSA or PRISM more than once or twice (just kidding). Stay tuned.