Microsoft Outlook vs. Apple Calendar: Which is best for business?

3 years ago 384

Apple Calendar and Microsoft Outlook person agelong been leaders successful calendaring and scheduling, with Calendar boasting a simplicity borderline for Mac users. Has Outlook yet caught up?

The reputations were good earned. For years, Microsoft Outlook was a bloated idiosyncratic accusation absorption behemoth, portion Apple's Calendar was a simple, straightforward programme that conscionable worked.

Can an aged app larn caller tricks, though?

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Calendar, included by default wrong macOS, iPadOS and iOS, continues to beryllium an easy-to-use programme that provides stable, reliable operation. The app provides an easy navigated superior interface, shown successful Figure A, that displays either a Day, Week, Month oregon Year view. A left-hand navigation menu, meanwhile, makes adding and removing from progressive show idiosyncratic calendars, specified arsenic are typically maintained for idiosyncratic appointments and enactment engagements and adjacent tracking caller publication releases oregon the Arsenal shot team's upcoming fixtures.

Figure A

Adding events is elemental utilizing Calendar. Click and resistance the cursor wrong the corresponding clip framework utilizing the Day oregon Week view. Alternatively, you tin right-click a day utilizing the Month presumption and prime New Event from the resulting pop-up menu. Supply the event's details, and you're bully to go.

There is simply a catch, though. Calendar doesn't dedicate overmuch abstraction for notes. While configuring locations, alerts and repetitive occurrences and adjacent accommodating estimated question clip are each instantly disposable wrong Calendar, the Notes conception is somewhat abbreviated and, successful my experience, somewhat clunky. Maybe that's due to the fact that others don't proviso arsenic overmuch accusation for events arsenic I sometimes do. The problem's proven somewhat distressing, professionally, successful my attempts to way lawsuit histories, interaction names and titles, highlights from erstwhile telephone oregon email conversations and akin details straight wrong appointments.

Clearly, Calendar's developers cognize what they're doing, regardless. No tenable idiosyncratic volition statement the macOS calendar icon itself is brilliant, displaying the existent day straight wrong its Mac, iPad and iPhone icon.

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And past there's Outlook, the beast of an exertion packing email, interaction management, task medication and calendaring wrong a azygous app. Microsoft Office products—Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook—have agelong been known to see a bewildering postulation of capabilities, actions and settings. Available options became truthful plentiful, Microsoft yet introduced the contextual ribbon to effort simplifying users' enactment with exertion features.

Outlook, of course, antecedently suffered from specified bloat. But the caller Mac mentation of Outlook, including Microsoft's "New Outlook" enabled utilizing the sliding vigor fastener embedded wrong the Mac app, dramatically reduces clutter. Instead of being assaulted with an anxiety-provoking array of buttons and icons, New Outlook presents a remarkably sparse interface that brings what you request astir beforehand and center. The rest? Advanced features stay and tin beryllium accessed from disposable menus, but they're not distracting and waiting conscionable down the scenes.

Judge for yourself. Witness the modular Outlook enactment week view, arsenic shown successful Figure B. It's easy navigated. New events are casual to add. Just double-click the respective abstraction for the time and clip of gathering you privation to add.

Figure B

Provide assignment details wrong the abstraction provided for entering the event's name, date, clip and location, and you're set. Need much precocious features, specified arsenic mounting a regular recurrence? Just right- oregon double-click the lawsuit and prime Edit, which presents further options arsenic shown successful Figure C, while noticing there's ample abstraction for notes.

Figure C

Apple's Calendar app is proven. It's casual to usage and offers the astir commonly utilized features. Consider the program's readily connected to your iCloud oregon Exchange account, and it's hard to reason for an alternative. Microsoft's developers, however, person done their homework. The "New Outlook" presents a cleanable interface, portion much precocious features stay disposable conscionable down the scenes. It's a astute and utile betterment that makes utilizing the programme passim the time that overmuch much efficient. And if your enactment uses different Microsoft 365 apps, you'll find the unobtrusive integration with Microsoft Planner and To Do conscionable much intelligent ways Outlook's been enhanced to supply entree to the features and capabilities today's harried professionals necessitate without being distracting.