I will try to keep my OWA-hating separate from my Outlook hating, but this blog will indeed cover both. Its hard to imagine how microsoft can keep making "improvements" while managing to keep this piece of bloated crapware from ever actually improving.
We just got "upgraded" to OWA 2013. On the plus side, chrome on linux is now officially accepted, so I dont need to use a user agent spoofer to get the "full" owa experience. And thats about it for the upside.
And now, for the downside:
1. Search. Is. Awful.
lets see...
a. no advanced search (you can type in parameters, which work, but absolutely nothing to indicate what the parameters are, no GUI for entering dates, nothing).
b. want to filter by date. either enter the parameters directly (see above), or you get 3 options: older than a week, older than a month, or older than a year. Seriously. Give me a bloody date filter, this is total rubbish. (no i'm not british, but i have cousins who are)
c. search doesnt really work all that well
in owa 2010, i could enter a case number (from salesforce) without the trailing zeros, say 6521, and I would get all the related emails no problem. OWA 2013, well, 6521 get me nothing. Microsoft's search engine is so advanced that it can distinguish between 00006521 and 6521, as they are clearly not the same.
d. if you dont find what you are looking for in 2 screens of results, well, just go the fuck home because you suck. Thats basically what the message at the bottom of the screen says.
2. Makes it stupidly inconvenient to copy an email address from a contact.
You know, once in a while, you need to copy someone's email address (say, to enter them as a lead). Well, Microsoft has managed to make it a serious pain to do so. Must be that advanced security engine protecting you from actually doing anything productive. Try it.
1. right click on contact
2. you can see the email now! but just try to right click and copy it, you know, that "copy email address" option that chrome gives you when you right click on any email address anywhere on the interwebs. nope.
3. highlight the text, but...dont click on it, or else it will open up a new email. and you can go back to step 1 (snakes and ladders anyone)?
Its very easy to go between step 1 and 3 at least 2 or 3 times before you finally get the bloody thing.
update - 10-4-13 - it gets better. if the email address is longer than say 25 characters or so, you get a ... and I dont see any way, barring black magic and busting kneecaps on microsoft executives, to get the bloody email out. of course i dont really know anything about using computers. i'm sure there is an easy way to do this. right? for fucks sake microsoft. what the hell is wrong with you?
We just got "upgraded" to OWA 2013. On the plus side, chrome on linux is now officially accepted, so I dont need to use a user agent spoofer to get the "full" owa experience. And thats about it for the upside.
And now, for the downside:
1. Search. Is. Awful.
lets see...
a. no advanced search (you can type in parameters, which work, but absolutely nothing to indicate what the parameters are, no GUI for entering dates, nothing).
b. want to filter by date. either enter the parameters directly (see above), or you get 3 options: older than a week, older than a month, or older than a year. Seriously. Give me a bloody date filter, this is total rubbish. (no i'm not british, but i have cousins who are)
c. search doesnt really work all that well
in owa 2010, i could enter a case number (from salesforce) without the trailing zeros, say 6521, and I would get all the related emails no problem. OWA 2013, well, 6521 get me nothing. Microsoft's search engine is so advanced that it can distinguish between 00006521 and 6521, as they are clearly not the same.
d. if you dont find what you are looking for in 2 screens of results, well, just go the fuck home because you suck. Thats basically what the message at the bottom of the screen says.
2. Makes it stupidly inconvenient to copy an email address from a contact.
You know, once in a while, you need to copy someone's email address (say, to enter them as a lead). Well, Microsoft has managed to make it a serious pain to do so. Must be that advanced security engine protecting you from actually doing anything productive. Try it.
1. right click on contact
2. you can see the email now! but just try to right click and copy it, you know, that "copy email address" option that chrome gives you when you right click on any email address anywhere on the interwebs. nope.
3. highlight the text, but...dont click on it, or else it will open up a new email. and you can go back to step 1 (snakes and ladders anyone)?
Its very easy to go between step 1 and 3 at least 2 or 3 times before you finally get the bloody thing.
update - 10-4-13 - it gets better. if the email address is longer than say 25 characters or so, you get a ... and I dont see any way, barring black magic and busting kneecaps on microsoft executives, to get the bloody email out. of course i dont really know anything about using computers. i'm sure there is an easy way to do this. right? for fucks sake microsoft. what the hell is wrong with you?
