Outlook 2004? Multi-users.

In short order, my wife and I will be forced to share one computer. It is more of a self-imposed experiement than anything else. I won't bore you with the details. The good news is that I get a faster machine with an 18" high-quality flat panel.

OK Darell... so what's the problem?

The problem is, I've been using Outlook for the past six years, and of course I'm hooked on it in several ways. My wife will soon be required to use Outlook for her work, and seeing as how we'll be on the same machine, that REALLY screws us up. She'll need to synch with her work email, and she receives about 1o0 email/day, while I see about 75. And of course the BIG problem is that Outlook does not support multiple users. This won't do...

So I've heard a rumor that Outlook 2004 WILL support multiple users. Anybody know if that is true? Anybody have some words of wisdom to get me out of this fix?

Now, I'm fully aware that many will quickly tell me how much Outlook sucks (as well as anything made my MS). So feel free to have at it. The bottom line is that I need a solution to my problem, so just knowing that my softward sucks won't help me nearly as much as suggesting what I should do differently. The idea of switching to Linux/Mac is NOT an option. (period) If there is another email client out there that will offer the same features that I'm used to with Outlook, and will allow me to import all of my contacts and emails, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance...

You know what? Outlook (as well as anything made my MS) sucks. Switch to Linux. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
OK, I just HAD to do that. Sorry. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif

As for your problem, I'm sorry, but I can't help you there. Good luck.

Dan

As I understand it, Win XP supports multiple profiles. You set up one for you, one for your wife. Outlook then has separate settings within each profile -- yours will be separate from your wife's.

Outlook itsself supports multiple profiles. Under the mail applet in control panel, where you setup services/accounts you can specify different profiles. Then set outlook to prompt at startup. You can use different user profiles in windows or different outlook profiles, whichever you want.

My wording may be a little off, I'm running Linux now so I can't look at it to see for sure.

Outlook does have many options that other e-mail clients don't. So the first thing to look at is.....what features of Outlook can't you live without? Another option is...are you willing to pay for an e-mail client?

Remember that Outlook is a pay for e-mail client. It would require purchasing MS Office to get it. Unless of course MS is going to offer it as a separate and free program.


Like PhotonBoy states...another option could be to set your computer up for multiple users. This option is not always optimum as you and your wife would need to possibly be logging in and out of your respective profiles. But it does allow you to keep everything separate.


Links.....
Profiles Outlook XP

Profiles Outlook 2000

Yahoo. OK, Let me look into this (well, not Logicnerd's /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif). I have been 99.9% sure that there were NOT different profiles to be set up in Outlook. Only Outlook Express.

We are using, and must continue to use, Win 2K, so the XP solution won't help, I'm afraid. We also cannot set up other users for Windows on this machine. Has to do with security on this work machine.

Why don't you try the one I've been using for the last two months

Its called Foxmail, its a freeware e-mail program it works just like Outlook.

Also supports from Win95 to WinXP

here is the web site
http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english.htm

here is a direct link to the file
http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/download/fm41en.exe

Hope it helps /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Darell,

I don't know if this is applicable to your situation.

Brightnorm

OUTLOOK EXPRESS MULTIPLE USERS

Man, you guys are great. EVery time I ask questions like this, I'm reminded of how much I like being part of this community!

Ratus -I'll look into that free client. Brightnorm - I've known that OE lets me have multiple users, but for some reason the pay-for-client Outlook does NOT! Crazy, but true. I can't go back to OE because it is way too limiting.

I think my best bet would be to figure out just WHY I can't create another user account on the Win2k machine. I am specifically being prevented from doing so by the folks who set the machine up. So that'll be the first job on Monday. Once I can do that, it will actually solve many of my other little problems.

Darrell, every other MS Office app creates independent data sets for each user account on a Win2K machine, I don't see why Outlook would be different. I don't use it though, so I'm not as sure as you are in the posts.

If you need help setting up different user accounts on your PC, see the picture...


Of course you need to be logged in with administrator rights to do this.

Can't have multiple users. Can't use XP. Sounds like a good reason to get another computer, or get another job.

And if that FPM is really good it should have two ports so you can hook both computers to it.

[ QUOTE ]
eluminator said:
Sounds like a good reason to get another computer, or get another job.


[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah... I hate it when they force $5,000 worth of hardware on us. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
[ QUOTE ]
And if that FPM is really good it should have two ports so you can hook both computers to it.

[/ QUOTE ]
It is and it does. But we're still using one computer.

[ QUOTE ]
BF Hammer said:

Of course you need to be logged in with administrator rights to do this.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ah. Therein lies the rub. But I'm working on this part (didn't realize until just a short while ago that this was the case). We can't be admin on this machine. I've only had about three days of experience on Win2K so this is all new. I'm used to ALWAYS having control over the machine that sits in front of me!

No question that Outlook will do what I want if I can just create a new user.

Really, my main intent here is to save money, desk space, energy and physical resources.

I have the same problem and haven't addressed it because my wife can use Outlook Express because she does't use a contact list. I run Outlook as well as Filemaker Pro. I only use the Filemaker pro for business contacts and databases but remember when I set it up you could also include e-mail and any other contact info. and mail merge from there. Filemaker Pro is Outlook on steroids and so much more. It is infinitely customizable and you can have as many profiles as you like. It also talks to Mac's if you need to forward a list to one of "those" people. I am not sure if you can set-up to receive email or not with it. I also don't know if it will work for you but it's very powerful. I run 5.0 and now see 6.0 is available.

Filemaker Pro

Possible web-based approach:

http://www.oddpost.com/learnmore.html

- 50 megabytes storage space
- staggeringly effective spam filtering
- news & blog aggregation
- not a lick of advertising
- desktop-style interface with drag & drop, address auto-completion, right-click menus & shortcut keys
- spell checker with customizable dictionary
- send & receive large attachments (up to 10 megs)
- retrieve mail from up to 6 other accounts
- customizable from & reply-to addresses
- custom signature
- accessible via POP & IMAP
- address book import
- automatically checks for new messages
- $30/year

Wow, that oddpost looks awesome. Never heard of it before. I'm quite skeptical about the "fast as desktop-based applications" but I'll definitely look into it. I've always dreaded having to use web-based email - and I do it ALL the time when I travel. If there truly is an application that can be "fast" and web-based, I'd be thrilled. One of my big problems though, is that when I travel I'm on dialup, and suddenly "fast" just isn't.

There are a lot of things you can't do if you don't have administrative rights. Like install applications.

I may be one of the few home users that logs in as a non-administrator when I browse the web. Supposedly this makes my machine more secure from those with malicious intent. It can be a pain though.

If you already have a POP account on a server somewhere, you can try www.mail2web.com to access it (for free). Seems able to drill through corporate firewalls quite well.

Since you can't set up seperate user accounts with Windows you can set up seperate profiles in Outlook. It will work pretty much the same way, you just close outlook and open again choosing the other account.