I’ve managed to get a hold of the most recent Windows Vista beta and have noticed two new applications on the start menu, Contacts and Calendar. Typically, the user would just use Outlook or Outlook express to enter in their personal data, but these new applications seem much more user friendly.
First, the calendar. As you can see, the UI is very user-friendly, but it does lack some of the bells and whistles that the Outlook calendar has. It has an import-export function much like Outlook that allows you to upload your information automatically. There are multiple views such as work week, week, month, etc. The feature I like the most is the easy publish feature that is embedded into it. When you click publish, a wizard appears that leads you through a step by step process on how to publish your information online. I beleive this will be a step in the right direction since companies will be able to view all of their employees schedules easily from an online source…not to mention you could check your schedule from anywhere in the world with any computer.
Next up, the new Contacts application. In Vista, each user has their own contacts stored in their user folder. The program itself is again simple but very useful. It has the same import-export function. The information fields for each contact are very numerous and useful. You can be so specific to even record your contact’s wedding aniversary. Also, there is a picture field for each contact which is very nice.
So, why mention these programs? Well, first, I believe that they will change Palm PIM programs significantly. Programs will be rewritten to sync with these applications. Vista also now includes a Sync Center which helps keep all your mobile devices synced easily. I could not try this program, because the current Palm driver for XP is incompatible with Vista…which may mean a new Palm Desktop might come out soon?
Please leave comments if you have questions that I might answer regarding the new programs and operating system. Windows Vista gives a lot more support to mobile devices than Windows XP did, and it will be exciting to see how the mobile market reacts.
-Brock
Related posts:
Well…2 programs that mostly failed in my opinion in vista. first, calendar doesnt import contacts birthday?!?! i mean how hard could it be for microsoft 2 implement that? now i’ll have 2 type them all manualy. second they could do a better job with contacts, something like in osx. many people have 2 or 3 home phones, 2 or 3 bussines phones, 2-3 mails and so on. and mentioning contacts it could be better implemented in mail program. i mean when u type in To field that auto complete feature should offer all mails of contact so you could choose by using only up and down arrows.
How do you export contacts under Vista? The online help says to open Windows Contacts, and then select “Export” from the Toolbar. I don’t see export anywhere? Is it just me?
Thanks,
Mark
Nevermind, I figured it out. The Properties of my Contacts folder were set incorrectly. Under the “Customize” tab I changed the folder type to “Contacts” instead of “All Items”, and now I see the Import and Export buttons.
Mark
I really wish, though, that Outlook 2007 would talk to the Contacts folder. It seems a terrible miss that the two refuse to speak to one another. And implementing a MAPI-addressbook provider for Outlook never having done it before is really frustrating.
Thanks to Mark for the tip on activating the Export button in Contacts. I wasted a couple of frustrating hours in Vista’s Help looking for that answer.
just in case someone finds this post and figures out how to get calendar and contacts to synch with a WM5 ppc phone, let me know at iluvhatemail at yahoo dot com. I really have no use for windows office anymore (thanks to open office) but would love a way to back-up my info automatically.
We are unable to import the Contacts from our old XP laptop onto our new Vista laptop – how do we do this?
Contacts is really screwed up! If you enter a birthdate or anniversary, The date entered in the individual’s pages gets published as being one day earliert than actually entered; and to make it worse, after each date a “time” appears. The time that appears is always 5:00 PM. If you want the date to appear correctly in the list, you have to make it a day later than it actually is… the Catch 22 there is thatthe individual page is then incorrect. It has to be some kind of bug, and it’s not good. Even the techs couldn’t figure it out. Microsoft needs to issue a patch to correct the situation!
Thanks to Mark,
I just looked for hours to find the export button..till I found this website
Thanks a million to Mark.
Vista is quite frustrating in certain aspects.
Thanks Mark. Exporting from Vista contacts has been frustrating me for the last month.
Thanks Mark! You saved me! I couldn’t find that info from Vista Help.
how do u get help from windows vista? im giong in circles? grrrrrr
how do i get help from windows vista? im giong in circles? grrrrrr i need to ask how to fix my media player, it stopped showing the album art and when i put a cd in, it says unknown artist??? please help me its been months and still no help
Hi,
Custom disk, or sth that you purchased? In my experience custom disks don’t retain the album art.
Could I impose and ask a question? My Vista Calendar will no longer allow me to enter appointments. The box to enter the data will not open to enter the appointment data. Same applies to the tasks. Have you heard of this before, and might you know a possible fix??
Thanks for your time! It’s appreciated!!
Wally
I transferred my contacts from XP on old machine to Vista outlook on new machine but there does not appear to be a category field except for a few colors. Can I add the categories field back in or do I now have to transfer all of my contacts to the business contacts in order to have categories? I would be grateful for any help.