A look at Microsoft’s online maps and directions add-in for Outlook 2002, Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.
Microsoft has released an updated mapping add-in for Outlook 2002 (XP), Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. You may have already seen a pop-up advising the update when you start Outlook.
The new download supports, surprise, surprise, Outlook 2007 and Windows Vista.
The installation is relatively painless. The 3.7MB download is small. You have to install with Outlook totally shut-down, which as usual can be tiresome to achieve. If you have a PDA sync running (ie ActiveSync with a Pocket PC) then Outlook will still run in a hidden instance. We have also experienced times when Outlook has been told to exit and appears to have done so, but checking the Task Manager shows that it still running long afterward.
Microsoft continues to push its own wares during the install with install options (default on) to install Windows Live toolbar, make Windows Live your default web page and change the default search engine in IE. If you’re like most people you’ll want to leave your IE settings the way they are so UNcheck each of the options.
On first start of Outlook after install there can be a delay while some conversion of existing data happens.
To get the ‘3D’ map support you’ll need a separate download – Windows Live will prompt you if that is needed.
Naturally Windows Live requires an internet connection, and for efficiency and your sanity, something better than dial-up. However if your budget can stand it, the new add-in will use offline data from Microsoft Mappoint.
Some continuing niggles
As in the past, the focus of Windows Live mapping is on North America (for example it assumes any address given is in the US unless stated otherwise) but it still can work for more populous areas of Europe and Australia.
Windows Live Mapping continues to be fixated on meetings and directions from one place to another. While this is very clever, sometimes you just want to map a single address, and the Outlook add-in provides no direct way to do that. Having these features in Outlook Contacts (to map the location of a contact without fancy directions etc) is apparently obvious to everyone except Microsoft – go figure.
The address parsing into a mappable address isn’t of the same quality as the Google equivalent. Sometimes the first choice from Windows Live is, curious, to put it kindly. If you see a warning message over the map saying it can’t find a close match to the address you want, don’t panic, the ‘Find Address’ dialog box will show more results – curiously the first on the list is often the one you want despite the earlier message.
Still, as far as it goes, the Outlook add-in is worth a look, especially for North American users. However you may find that Google Map is a better system (benefiting from a broader data base and more open approach), despite it lacking a direct Outlook add-in. Note: the install of the 3D map component will again try to change your Internet Explorer search and default page settings – never let it be said that Microsoft isn’t persistent.
How to use
After installation, re-start Outlook and go to Calendar view. Choose an appointment that has a valid address in the Location field. ‘Valid’ address means some string of text that Windows Live can interpret as an address. “742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield” could be valid in the non-animated TV show world
Like other Microsoft mapping products, address searching works best when the address uses commas to separate street number/name, suburb/city, state, postal code and country. The USA is assumed but otherwise you should specify the country for all addresses.
Your immediate options are on the toolbar of the open calendar item or on the ribbon in Outlook 2007 – click on the Location button:
Find Locations lets you enter an address and have a list of possible locations display. This is also the place where you setup your home and work locations.
Get Directions will show driving directions from start to appointment.
The driving directions seemed reasonably accurate, though anyone who has used any software mapping soon discovers that there are anomalies in the data and directions. It was no surprise that directions were available for North America, UK and Europe because Microsoft already sells mapping software for those areas, but the Aussie members of Office Watch were pleasantly surprised to get driving directions for locations in Sydney.
‘Add Travel Time to my calendar’ will add the estimated driving time to your appointment but that’s just the travel time not including unknowns like traffic, finding a parking spot, stopping for coffee or losing car keys. Be warned that “Travel Time” usually means travelling at the maximum speed limit for the total distance, regardless of the actual traffic conditions. The pull-down list gives you other time options so you can extend, the often unrealistic, estimate.
The Travel time is added as a separate but adjacent appointment, Live Search Maps adds a note which explains the new appointment and its relationship to the original appointment. Note the warnings about only changing the original appointment and not the travel time extra.
Here’s the note text, we’ve added some formatting so the warnings are more clearly seen:
” Live Search Maps for Outlook created this Travel Time appointment to block off the time you need to travel to the appointment specified on the subject line.
- Any changes to travel information such as date, time, or duration, must be made in the original appointment.
- Travel time changes made to the original appointment are automatically copied to the Travel Time appointment.
- Changes made directly to a Travel Time appointment may be lost.
“
Click on the ‘Show Traffic Information’ option to see if there are any problems en-route. Hover over the yellow exclamation marks to see details – most of the time the events are minor and probably cleared by the time you get there.
The ‘Explore this Location’ replaces the ‘Find Local Information’ button in earlier versions. It opens a browser window at Windows Live with the start and end entered for you. This gives you more control over the directions (shortest time vs shortest distance) and the ability to check-out the surrounding area.
Custom Location
You can specify a Start Location for driving directions with presets for Home, Work and Other. You can set these by right-clicking on a mapped location:
Or click on the Office Button (the big round one on top left) and choose ‘Live Search Maps for Outlook options’.
Microsoft has been typically tricky in their wording of this feature – they talk about ‘Custom Locations’ and boast ‘Create friendly names for frequently used locations, such as “Downtown office.”‘.
In practice there are only three custom locations and two of those have fixed labels ‘Home’ and ‘Business’. The third can be renamed to anything you like but if you change the ‘Other’ label it overwrites the existing setting.
Maps can be included in appointments sent to other people using the ‘Send travel information with meeting invite’. If you request map data for an appointment then you can invite people and a link to the location data in Windows Live will be included in the invitation email.
Currently this utility only works with appointments, you might expect it to work with contacts but that’s not the case. You could create a temporary appointment for any address then copy the map and directions to the notes field of a contact.
There is remarkably little on the Microsoft web site about this tool however if you click on the Help button under the Location section of the ribbon there’s a useful little help file.
