I’ve stood by Outlook to do my calendaring to a fault (to the point of insanity sometimes). As finicky as Outlook can be, I’ve stuck with it for 20 years. Recently, calendaring—and Tasks, Contacts, etc.—became hugely complicated: enter multiple devices and even worse, multiple computers running Outlook, and the addition of a smartphone.
The hard part is this: how do you get all of your devices to talk to one another and keep in synchronization? Apple users have been handed something very helpful toward that goal in terms of iCloud. And Google has kept at it, trying to integrate Tasks with Contacts with Calendar. Not a perfect solution yet; but then nothing is. My own solution, as an owner of an Android-based smartphone, and someone who uses Outlook, might interest you no matter what systems you use. How so? Anyone in a similar situation can connect the dots, so to speak, to find something that helps them keep their devices in sync.
I have Outlook on two laptops. They don’t normally talk to one another. I’ve used various software solutions to try to make this happen. The most recent is SimpleSyn. Good news: it instantly keeps all computers running Outlook—no matter the version of Windows or Outlook—synchronized. Bad news: all computers running Outlook must be on and connected to the Net. So that sort of, kind of, takes care of one problem. To connect the dots between Outlook and my Android, I use two related pieces of software. On the laptops, I use CompanionLink. The ‘companion’ app on the smartphone is called DejaOffice.
One day, in a more perfect technology world, I won’t have to jump through hoops to do what I need to do. And perhaps I’m over-complicating my life (at least in terms of the second laptop). But if I was able to find a pretty good solution for keeping my Outlook-Android world in synchronization, I’m confident you can find one for keeping your CMS and BlackBerry / Android / iPhone / Windows Phone connected!
