I’m still stuck using MS Outlook, and to be honest, it’s leaving me hanging. Or hanging me out to dry. I’ve stayed with it mainly because I haven’t found a full-featured substitute for the calendar and task features, and because I I need a single source of truth for contacts, and it’s nice to be able to link contacts to tasks and calendar entries. But since I’m now using Thunderbird, I don’t get *any* meaningful contact/email integration beyond a once-in-a-while export from Outlook to TBird, and adding new contacts to Outlook is a full-on cut-and-paste affair.

1) Why hasn’t someone done a good open source/web 2.0 PIM? GCal? Backpack? Sunbird? Or should I just _switch_?

What’s missing? For one, an open repository and less opaque scripting. While Outlook _can_ be scripted (see below), it’s very tricky to find the application-specific details that are necessary to do so. More importantly, the closed repository _requires_ you to go through the app to get at the data. While that’s the intrinsic model for shrink-wrap software, it’s (arguably) not the most productive way to build a platform. I suppose MS will probably sell you a developer’s API to the Outlook repository, but I’m much more inclined to favor applications that add value on top of an *open respository*. Del.icio.us is a great example.

Another big thign missing from Outlook is web-based access and ICAL/RSS support. ICAL support would solve the web access issue itself, I think.

2) Why hasn’t someone written an extension for TBird that grabs contact info from an email sig and creates a vCard or hCard on the fly? Any pointers to apps that handle this more elegantly?

update: I may have found it — Anagram

3) I would give $100 for a the ability to hover over a name with some modifier key held down and be linked to the contact info from my preferred contacts source-of-truth. That’s probably easy enough to do in MacOS w/ Spotlight and scripting, but with Outlook? ugh

update: After finding Anagram, which makes it _so_ much easier to get data _into_ Outlook, I realized that I could use AutoHotKey to script what I described above. Now if I select a name and hit F11, AutoHotKey activates Outlook, runs a search on the name, and pulls up the contact record. Another AutoHotKey macro allows me to run a Google search from anywhere, and another pulls up Google Maps. So, even though Windows doesn’t have built-in scripting like MacOS, there are great little utilities like AutoHotKey that do the same job. Very nice! PS - you could use VBA, Perl, and any number of other scripting languages that run on Windows to do the same thing.

UPDATE as requested by Paul Farquhar: Here is the relevant AHK code:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Activate MS Outlook search box (F11)
; use $ for global F-key, since F11 is Outlook's own native "search" hotkey
$F11::
IfWinNotActive, Outlook
{
	ActivateOutlook()
}
Sleep 300		; 300ms
; send local F11 to Outlook itself to focus in search box
Send, {F11}
return

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Look up selected contact in MS Outlook (Ctrl-F11)
^F11::
CopyToClipboard()
ActivateOutlook()
Sleep 300
Send, {F11}
Send, ^V
Send, {ENTER}
return

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; activate MS Outlook function, handling Office 12/11/10
ActivateOutlook()
{
	IfWinNotExist, Outlook
	{
		IfExist, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE
			Run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE"
			Goto, Activate
		IfExist, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\OUTLOOK.EXE
			Run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\OUTLOOK.EXE"
			Goto, Activate
		IfExist, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OUTLOOK.EXE
			Run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OUTLOOK.EXE"
			Goto, Activate
		WinWait, Outlook
	}
	Activate:
	WinActivate, Outlook
}