Ultimate E-mail (Outlook 2013 and/or Gmail)

Question

I have read about GTD, 5 sentences and have seen the inbox zero video. I am currently using Outlook 2012 (preview) which I like a lot. I have used outlook 2010 and 2007 before.

I am wondering if Outlook 2012 is the best mail client for me.

I would like to:

• Have mail signatures for internal mail xxx@mycompany.com and external mail. (depending on the mail domain) Like this on superuser.
• Have mail templates or auto reply internal mail with a F.A.Q.
• Auto reply like Tim Ferris but not to everybody
• Have shortcut keys to move to certain folders (to process the inbox)
• Have shortcut keys to reply with template 1, 2 or 3

So as I have said, is outlook the best solution for me? or is it Gmail? or do I need some ninja add-on?

Answer 1

I have moved away from Outlook 2013 and moved to Gmail (and google apps) It runs awesome in chrome. I have the tab pinned and use the keyboard shortcuts. They have canned responses.

The mailsignature depending on the senders domain is still missing, but I think that there is no 100% solution for it at the moment. I am still impressed by the big improvement in outlook if you compare 2013 with 2010 and also when you compare 2010 with 2007. The office team makes huge steps, but I prefer smaller steps and more often.

Answer 2

IMO Outlook is horrible on multiple levels, but I'm on OS X; I don't know if the Windows version is better. I would assume it has to be, or we'd have a lot more busted monitors.

Postbox will likely be my new client of choice on the corporate side, unsure if I'll use it for everything else or not. It has some compelling functionality but I'm not sure about numbered auto-replies etc. It's available for OS X and Windows.

Answer 3

It's not balance if we compare Google with Outlook. It two different services. Google is Email Standalone Service and Outlook is Email Client Service. Which mean, outlook will not work if you don't have email server.

If compare Gmail with any other Free Email Service like Yahoo, Live and etc. I will choose google. Some of key feature that i like from GMail

1. Google have feature that can grab all your email in other account and place it in once Gmail Inbox
2. Google Sync, it's push mail is the best free service from my experience.
3. Better tagging email
4. Better SPAM Filter
5. Google has huge range of service: Calendar and Contact all in one place and Sync in all of my devices.

For email client, i will recommend Thunderbird if on PC (I'm mostly use mac). It's small, free, fast to open. With IMAP setting. I can read my email in all devices.

Answer 4

I am really happy with Gmail, but run through the wonderful app MailPlane. Also, using the Boomerang plugin has really improved my workflow!