It is very difficult to think in others’ shoes.
I have been using Outlook Express for years, and it works perfect as an email program. Recently I switched to Outlook because I really want to integrate Calendar, To-do list these sort of information.
However, integration can not happen overnight. Outlook still works mainly as an email program. That is to say, I have not enjoyed the extra benefits from Outlook apart from Outlook Express. When Outlook is working as a replacement of Outlook Express, I have encountered difficulties just because I am thinking in Outlook Express.
For example, how to insert a signature in Outlook? Following Outlook Express’ philosophy, I went to Insert menu and looking for a menu item called signature. No gain. Then I hovered my mouse over every button in toolbars. No gain, either. It seemed no intuitive way to insert a signature, so I turned to Help for help. Now I understand possibly for Office Automation reasons, it is not possible to insert a signature manually. If I want my signature shown in my outgoing emails, I must preset before composing email.
3 steps to achieve that:
- Make up signatures.
- In the main window of Outlook, Tools > Options > Mail Format Dialogue, choose signature for new messages, choose signature for replies and forwards. Choose none if you do not want any signature to be inserted.
- Start composing email. Every email will be inserted a default signature if you choose to do so at step 2, otherwise, there is no possibility to insert a signature later after composing has started. However, you can change signatures by right click on the default signature.
Am I thinking in Outlook’s developers’ shoes? Absolutely not.