Replace the Sidebar notes applet with one that links to your Outlook Notes folder.
The Windows Sidebar in Vista is a configurable collection of ‘gadgets’ that can display all manner of things. One of the ‘out of the box’ gadgets is ‘Notes’ which lets you type in small chunks of text as you think of them – it’s similar to the Notes option in Outlook but with no link between them.
Developers are encouraged to write small gadgets and post them on Microsoft’s web site. It’s little surprise that someone has made a gadget to put Outlook notes on the Windows Sidebar.
You can get this free gadget from here and once installed it will display all the Outlook notes and let you cycle through them one at a time. Changes in existing notes are written back to Outlook and new notes added to the Outlook store.
But be aware of the limitations of this gadget:
- It’s only been tested to work with Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, though it may work with earlier versions.
- Outlook needs to be running in order for the gadget to work. If it’s not running when the gadget starts then Outlook will also start up.
- The annoying security prompt is triggered by the gadget. You can approve access for a maximum of 10 minutes which isn’t much use in this situation. The developer suggests you disable Outlook security altogether which isn’t a good idea either. Hopefully a future version will bypass the security prompt, just as many other applications do.
- Your mileage may vary, usually because of Outlook. If your copy of Outlook runs speedily and normally then this gadget will too. But if Outlook is already sluggish (more likely with Outlook 2007) then the gadget may well play up.
Despite the problems (common with any application that tries to work with Outlook) this gadget is worth a try. The developer ‘EQrob’ is to be commended for this effort.
