Are you none of those who simply love GMail for its conversation view? And long for similar arrangement of your Official Emails in that format as well??
Well ... I have a good news for you! I just discovered that Outlook also has a conversations view to arrange emails as in the GMail window.
It might be surprising to know that Conversation View which GMail sold as probably one of the most compelling innovation [Read the 3rd and 6th paras here], was always present in Outlook. For all you know not just Outlook but even other email clients like Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, and the non-so-well-known-ones might also have this mode of arrangement.
But as Shiv Khera says(I tweaked his phrase a bit to suit my context) :
Successful companies don't do different things - they do things differently!
Google definitely used the same idea - but presented it in a completely different manner. More so, one should clearly appreciate that GMail is a Web-application while Outlook a Desktop App - implementing features as powerful as Desktop App isn't easy in a WebApp. It is the way GMail presented the whole concept to users is what makes it useful.
In fact this makes Google the perfect post-internet incarnation of what Microsoft was in the pre-internet era. Microsoft neither invented DOS nor the concept of Mouse-and-Windows - DOS was a Seattle Computer Corp innovation while Mouse/Windows was conceived by Apple's Steve Jobs. But the way Microsoft popularized these tools - the marketing/ sales / advertising/ buzz - that made these products Microsoft trademarks.
For my contacts: It was blocking of GMail access that prompted me to engage in all this research. So, since I cannot access my GMail account from office any more - if there are any urgent emails please send them to nikhil.kulkarni_at_kpmg.co.uk .
Please DO NOT SEND FORWARDS or any other unecessary stuff on my official email - it is only to be used for urgent matters. I will be blocking any address that spams my official inbox with unecessary stuff!
Well ... I have a good news for you! I just discovered that Outlook also has a conversations view to arrange emails as in the GMail window.
It might be surprising to know that Conversation View which GMail sold as probably one of the most compelling innovation [Read the 3rd and 6th paras here], was always present in Outlook. For all you know not just Outlook but even other email clients like Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, and the non-so-well-known-ones might also have this mode of arrangement.
But as Shiv Khera says(I tweaked his phrase a bit to suit my context) :
Successful companies don't do different things - they do things differently!
Google definitely used the same idea - but presented it in a completely different manner. More so, one should clearly appreciate that GMail is a Web-application while Outlook a Desktop App - implementing features as powerful as Desktop App isn't easy in a WebApp. It is the way GMail presented the whole concept to users is what makes it useful.
In fact this makes Google the perfect post-internet incarnation of what Microsoft was in the pre-internet era. Microsoft neither invented DOS nor the concept of Mouse-and-Windows - DOS was a Seattle Computer Corp innovation while Mouse/Windows was conceived by Apple's Steve Jobs. But the way Microsoft popularized these tools - the marketing/ sales / advertising/ buzz - that made these products Microsoft trademarks.
Coming to Step by Step procedure of enabling 'Conversation View' in Outlook:
- Go to View Menu ->Arrange By->Uncheck the "Show in Groups" Option (which is usually enabled by default)
- Again Go to View Menu ->Arrange By-> and click "Custom"
- A new dialog opens up:
- Click "Group By" button -> Select "Conversation" in the "Group Items By" dropdown. Note that the Automatically Group according to arrangement checkbox should be unchecked
- Click "Sort" button -> Select "Received" in "Sort Items By" dropdown-> check "Descending" radio button
- Click Ok/Apply and lo! You are done with it.
- For better readability you might want to make some more settings.
- In the View Menu ->Arrange By-> Custom dialog -> Click "Other Settings" button. Now under "Grid Lines and Group Headings" section check the checkbox "Shade group headings"
- View Menu->Expand Collapse Groups->click "Collapse All Groups"
For my contacts: It was blocking of GMail access that prompted me to engage in all this research. So, since I cannot access my GMail account from office any more - if there are any urgent emails please send them to nikhil.kulkarni_at_kpmg.co.uk .
Please DO NOT SEND FORWARDS or any other unecessary stuff on my official email - it is only to be used for urgent matters. I will be blocking any address that spams my official inbox with unecessary stuff!
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