The 2013 To-Do bar is a step back in usefulness.
The Outlook 2013 To-Do bar isn’t as useful as the Outlook 2010 version – at least for the calendar.
The Outlook 2010 version shows future appointments for the current and next day.
But in Outlook 2013 that’s been inexplicably reduced to the current day only. Even if you’ve done all the days appointments and there’s plenty of screen space, Outlook is blank.
Not for the first time, we wonder at Microsoft’s thinking. Why reduce the amount of information displayed to users? Why leave screen space unused?
The To-Do bar can also display Contacts (now mis-named ‘People’ ) and Tasks as well at View | To-Do Bar.
But those elements are optional and there’s no reason why the Outlook code can’t cope with changing requirements to display as much information as possible.
Some options to show appointments for 1, 2 or even 3 days ahead should be available. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s culture seems to be focused on the simplistic ignoring the long term, experienced users who expect more flexibility.
See Also
- Outlook 2013 mysteries
- Outlook’s flipping image problem
- Office 2013 and the useless mail alerts
- Outlook 2013 and its wasted space
- Outlook 2013 and the return of Unread messages
