Looking for an email client with calendar/planner

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:32 am

I've been using Outlook in work and I love having a built-in planner and calendar and stuff. I don't want to buy Outlook for my home use though, so I'm on the lookout for something similar.

It doesn't matter if it's free, I'd be willing to pay for a client that deserves it. Any suggestions?

Kschang77 · Post by **Kschang77** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:00 am

Firefox / Thunderbird has a free Calender plug-in, seems to work almost like the Outlook version.

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:16 am

Thanks, yeah, I just found it in fact. It's not bad actually, but it feels too much like an extension rather than a part of the package. I'm still on the lookout, if anyone else can think of anything.

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 2:40 pm

You might like Franklin Covey's PlanPlus for Windows XP. It's pretty cool but a bit flakey. But if you're going to spend that kind of money you might as well buy Outlook.

I just picked up Outlook 2003 as part of an MS Office package. The new version is worth the upgrade price imo. It's got a feature called search folders that I'm crazy about - essentially they're virtual folders that display search results.

Also having Outlook at home will make it easier to sync with your work calendar. Maybe you can even get your company to buy you a copy if it increases productivity.

Anyway, I paid $120 for full version (box & everything) of Office standard (Outlook, Excel, Word & PowerPoint) on ebay. You can get standalone versions of Outlook much cheaper than that too if you check Amazon or ebay.

Gedd · Post by **Gedd** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 5:34 pm

I'm keeping an eye on this thread because I've been thinking along the same lines. I switched from Outlook Express to Outlook because I didn't want to use separate programs for contacts, email, and calendars. I've adjusted quite well to Outlook, but the one huge problem I have with it is synching up my notebook to my desktop for when I go on travel, but I *always* have problems with it.

With Outlook Express, I simply moved over the contents of the data store folder to the other computer and voila, everything's in synch. Anytime I do that with Outlook I frequently end up with duplicate copies of the Personal Folder icon, each displaying the same thing. It usually takes a good bit of mucking with the registry to get things right. At the moment I'm dealing with an issue where it's listing two Contact stores, but they both seemed to be linked to the same address book, except the default version doesn't list any contacts.

If there was any easier way to synch things up (hint, hint Meghan

), I'd most likely stick with Outlook despite a few minor issues I have with it, but as it stands I'm very frustrated by it all.

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:45 am

Thanks very much Meghan. I don't think I'll bother with PlanPlus because it doesn't appear to have an email function...and it does a lot of stuff I'll never need, too.

Maybe I will stick with Outlook though, you're convincing me. I seriously doubt I'll be able to blag a copy from work though, heh.

Vegetable Man · Post by **Vegetable Man** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:59 pm

Last time I tried to use this, it was fairly unstable. But Mozilla has the Sunbird Calendar project, you might give that a shot:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:12 pm

Thanks very much, dude. It doesn't look much different to the Calendar extension I'm trying out with Thunderbird, though. I want something that's more integrated, not something I have to "launch" from within the email client. Frustratingly, a few more tweaks and Calendar/Sunbird would have it.

I can't believe the difficulty I'm having with my search, especially since I'm even willing to pay. I won't be amazingly happy to buy Outlook but that's looking like the only option.