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Share Me!

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Our motto here in Outlook land is "Sharing Means Caring". Okay, not really, but it's still a good virtue, and one we've grasped in several locations in Outlook 12. :)

What do I mean? Let's say you're subscribed to a really interesting RSS feed, like Gizmodo, or even some obscure feed that no one has ever heard of. You think the feed is great, and decide that you'd love to tell a friend about it.

How would you tell them about it using Outlook 12 Beta 1? You would have to...

  1. Go to Tools: Accounts: RSS
  2. Open 'Subscription Options" for the individual feed
  3. Copy the URL for the feed's XML file
  4. Close all those windows.
  5. Open a new mail message
  6. Paste in the URL.
  7. Type in your message and address it.
  8. Send the mail.

Then, when you're recipient gets the mail, they would have to copy the URL and manually paste it into their Account Manager to subscribe to the feed.

Well, doesn't this sound better:

  1. Right-click on any RSS item.
  2. Choose "Share this subscription" to create a new Sharing Message.
  3. Enter the recipient's email address and type a message into the body.
  4. Click Send.

You're done! The Sharing Message is a new message type in Outlook 12 that lets you easily "Tell a Friend" about any RSS feed, SharePoint list, or subscribed Internet Calendar. The message is a new type in Outlook 12 with its own custom UI:

It packages up all the information about the RSS, Internet Calendar, or SharePoint subscription and puts it right into the message. It eliminates all of the hassle of manually copying the URL, plus when the user receives the message they get a special "Add this subscription to Outlook" button that allows them to instantly subscribe to the resource. Sweet!

You can also think about this from a corporate scenario, and how content managers can easily blast out a Sharing Message to many users that would allow them to easily subscribe to a new internal SharePoint site or link it into Outlook, add a new RSS feed that is a company newsletter, or even sign-up for an external calendar that tracks a conference or release schedule.

Get ready to share!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Does this only work when talking to Exchange, or does it create a new MIME Content-Type? If so, is it documented anywhere so other email UAs can at least parse the data and let the user do a similar thing to Outlook?

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    This is great. I read about the 'Windows RSS Platform'; is Outlook 12 compliant? It seems IE 7 and Outlook 12 use different platforms as they do not share the feeds. Share Me! should also work between Microsoft Applications.

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    PingBack from http://vurter.wordpress.com/2006/02/17/share-me/

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    I see Microsoft still employs 5-year-old design consultants to decide on UIs.

    MS designers, WHAT are you thinking!?

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2006
    This is the most insane UI I have ever seen. Seriously.

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    Outlook 12's GUI - Too many words (and buttons), all of them negative....

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    PingBack from http://ejoneclicks.com/2006/02/18/the-kiss-rule-does-not-apply-here/

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    Is it really gonna be that ugly. That's about the most cluttered and ugly interface I've ever seen. I know it makes sense, it is from M$

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    To my eyes, this is a horrific interface. I will never use it, and I'm beginning to suspect that Ubuntu is in my future. Sorry, Microsoft.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    Please tell me that's not the final interface for Outlook. Please.

    You can't be serious.

    This reminds me of the mid 90s when small-time developers had to put every single feature in to a "toolbar" button.

    Word 6 for Mac, anyone?

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    i just hugged my mac.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    mac os x (all cocoa programs, e.g. safari, camino...):

    1. highlight address
    2. services - mail - send selection
    3. type/select adressee in the automatically generated mail
    4. cmd-shift-d

    to gabriel jeffrey: i don't hug my macs. but if i would have to use outlook ...

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    Deep down, you're seriously proud of this!?

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    Caution: Microsoft UI must be taken with 1000mg of dramamine and plenty of water!

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    I, too, dislike many Microsoft-designed user interfaces, but I think the rest of you people are mean and uncouth.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    I don't like this UI much either but beyond the 'new' toolbar it's pretty much the same. MS programs have always had extensive toolbar customisation so it's probably not a huge deal to tone it down to something reasonable.

    Obviously they need to re-think the default toolbar layout though - it's the incosistent grouping and sizing that really throws the user...

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    Has this interface done well in usability analysis? My immediate reaction to this is "gads!", but I also know that the general public sometimes reacts positively to things that I consider counterintuitive.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    All Microsoft interfaces are awful. I don't see why the new Outlook should be any different. There are just so many options, buttons, folders, toolbars. To me it is unusable. I am interested in the new 'ribbon' interface, but from what I have seen I am not hopeful.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    6 distinct button styles, three drop-down menu styles, text menus and icon menus jumbled together, 70% of real-estate taken by inessential widgets and controls … and that shiny metal style pulls your eyes into the top middle where there is no data or functionality. Design by committee?

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    In fact, that's the way the whole brand new Office 12 it's gonna look like:

    http://www.baychi.org/calendar/20051213/

    It is already in Beta 1

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    This is not the final look & feel of the UI, folks.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/09/15/467956.aspx

    See the second section, "The Visual Design of the Ribbon is Stolen From Mac OS X!"

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    I think not only mac-user "smile" about the design ...

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    PingBack from http://jeriko.l-tech.org/2006/02/20/outlook-12/

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    Either of these sound better to me...

    (long method)
    1. You open or click on the link in Safari
    2. go file>mail link or use the shortcut (Shift+Command+I)
    3. Type in the recipients mail address and email it to them

    (short method)
    1. Drag the 'RSS Item' onto the mail icon in the doc
    2. Type in the recipients mail address and email it to them

    Then the recipient

    1. Clicks the link which opens Safari (or their default rss reader)
    2. Hits Command+D to bookmark it

    BTW, what happens with all this sharing stuff if the recipient isn't blessed with Outlook 12 / windows vista, do they get it like an ordinary link?

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    Please, stop letting middle management decide the fate of design, Microsoft -- this is another setback... what makes you think that because you think it looks good, you know what looks good; from this UI to ie7 http://www.pulltoinflate.com/2006/02/08/design-without-all-that-design/

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    PingBack from http://www.sahanya.perun.net/archiv/2006/02/20/autsch/

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    "Still, though, comments like: "I see Microsoft still employs 5-year-old design consultants to decide on UIs" kind of lower the level of discourse."

    No, Microsoft creating that UI lowers the level of discourse. This is a jillion-dollars-a-day corporation. They can afford to make good products. They choose not to. That kind of comment is absolutely appropriate.

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 21, 2006
    What an abhorent user interface.

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2006
    About RSS:

    Two things that I would like to see altered.
    1.  When loading the links an IE browser opened to a blank screen.  By the time I was done with the Office 2007 RSS feeds I had a dozen browsers going across the screen.

    2.  RSS feed messages are included in my new mail count for the inbox.  Wish they were separate.  

    Thoughts?

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2006
    The screenshot in this case was showing the RSS attachment, not showcasing the new UI. Maybe every screenshot should be a video, but I doubt that's practical or necessary.

  • Anonymous
    February 27, 2006
    Duncan@netmigommy.net

  • Anonymous
    February 28, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2006
    jajasimaapson1982@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2006
    antony@fillaribze.com

  • Anonymous
    March 07, 2006
    PingBack from http://www.popnutten.de/archiv/2006/02/20/microsoft-zaubert/

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2006
    Greshamsmail@gmail.com

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2006
    ger.wildmon@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2006
    jefstake2006@homtail.com

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2006
    jefstake2006@homtail.com

  • Anonymous
    March 10, 2006
    jefstake2006@homtail.com

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    napsfavalleyfsoft3006@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2006
    napavalleysoft3006@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2006
    naalleysoft3006@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    March 15, 2006
    photovideo-store@mail.ru

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2006
    markos@xmlsearch.info

  • Anonymous
    March 23, 2006
    naalleysoft3006@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2006
    645863245496@yahoo.com

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2009
    PingBack from http://workfromhomecareer.info/story.php?id=19420

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    PingBack from http://gardendecordesign.info/story.php?id=6226