A lot of our clients are complaining about Microsoft’s annoying habit of making unannounced changes in features and in how we access what’s left and what we need. We can complain all we want, but this is one case where we just need to bite the bullet and work around various issues.

The biggest annoyances with Microsoft revolve around the New Outlook and the Classic (Old) Outlook. While New Outlook is faster and has some really good message management features, it doesn’t handle attachments as well as its “classic” version.

One of our clients receives .csv files as attachments from their bank. They can’t open them in New Outlook. The only solution is to toggle back to Classic Outlook to download the files and then toggle back. It’s an extra step I find having to use myself, and it doesn’t make me happy.

Other missing features cited in discussion groups and various articles are editing and writing features that used Word, especially for shortcuts; dozens of message handling options; calendar editing options, especially not having Word for editing; lack of print options in Mail view; using Outlook without a mouse; and PST file support.

Microsoft acknowledges that many features are missing and claims to be working on them, but our feeling is that they won’t do anything that will take a lot of time and money. My own feeling is that they don’t have engineers talking to people anymore. If you read responses to complaints, they seem like they were generated by bots; there’s little or no empathy for their customers.

Of course, Microsoft is not alone. Other tech companies seem to do what they want when they want, knowing that most of us have few or no alternatives. It seems that workarounds are the only solution to their shortcomings.

Workarounds are where we can help. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us and tell us what you’re trying to do with Outlook, Microsoft apps and apps from other software publishers. We’ll work with you to find workarounds that can make you more efficient.