Microsoft offers free Outlook for Mac Preview to test Google Calendar & Contacts features

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Mac Software
Microsoft on Wednesday released a standalone Outlook for Mac Preview version for free, as part of an attempt to gain more feedback on Google account upgrades including Calendar and Contacts integration.




The code represents the "earliest Outlook for Mac Preview build," Microsoft said, and is aimed only at people without an Office 365 subscription. Those who do have a subscription need to join Office Insider Fast to receive the same material.

Indeed, Insider Fast users have had access to extended Google support since early March. Microsoft cautions that the program supplies potentially risky builds that are on the cutting edge of Office development.




Google Calendar and Contacts data should sync like everything else in Outlook, with similar editing options. Microsoft is also building in a better Google setup experience, plus enhanced Gmail support, including Focused Inbox compatibility and automatic detection of travel and package information. The latter features were previously restricted to people with an Exchange, Office 365, or Outlook.com address.

The standalone Outlook for Mac Preview will expire on June 30. After that point, people will have to sign up for Office 365.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    zimmermannzimmermann Posts: 325member
    Interesting. I always had difficulties with Outlook and Gmail. It never synced. But, to little to late, left Outlook for MacOS Mail and Calendar and Contacts. Still use Word and Excel and Powerpoint though, and OneDrive. Why did Apple never really tried to win over Word and Excel users with an as good offering with Pages, and Numbers and Keynote?
    edited April 2017
  • Reply 2 of 10
    maciekskontaktmaciekskontakt Posts: 1,169member
    zimmermann said:
    Interesting. I always had difficulties with Outlook and Gmail. It never synced. But, to little to late, left Outlook for MacOS Mail and Calendar and Contacts. Still use Word and Excel and Powerpoint though, and OneDrive. Why did Apple never really tried to win over Word and Excel users with an as good offering with Pages, and Numbers and Keynote?
    MS-Office is good, but now free LibreOffice is starting to pick up according to maturity and trens. We use it on Macs (in fact it started with OpenOffice versions like NeoOffice long time ago). LibreOffice also supports cloud now and it seems to be far more polished than MS-Office chaos.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    kelly93kelly93 Posts: 5member
    join the MS Insider program if you enjoy living dangerously. tried it for a very, very short time, they released Excel versions so unstable with large files they were unusable... to the point where i find it hard to believe there was any kind of alpha whatsoever.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    soundvisionsoundvision Posts: 173member
    Interesting. I always had difficulties with Outlook and Gmail. It never synced. But, to little to late, left Outlook for MacOS Mail and Calendar and Contacts. Still use Word and Excel and Powerpoint though, and OneDrive. Why did Apple never really tried to win over Word and Excel users with an as good offering with Pages, and Numbers and Keynote?
    It likely never worked because it wasn't possible. Only the email portion of Outlook would work with Google, but not contacts or calendar support. This update in Outlook 2016 is the first time full Gmail support has been supported within the app on the Mac.
    edited April 2017
  • Reply 5 of 10
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,251member
    As far as I'm concerned all Microsoft software should be treated as potential malware and not loaded on any Mac. Enterprise customers need to challenge its use as well. Bloated, infected and not worth the client licenses. 
    pscooter63
  • Reply 6 of 10
    VergiliusVergilius Posts: 11member
    So MS is offering buggy software for free.  I remember when they used to charge a small fortune for it.

  • Reply 7 of 10
    paul turnerpaul turner Posts: 222member
    Vergilius said:
    So MS is offering buggy software for free.  I remember when they used to charge a small fortune for it.

    Microsoft is far worse than that: Yes of course its buggy. Thast ist default way of doing business.  I manage to crash outlook, word, excel on a daily basis at work. At least now it doesn't take the machine with it! It s a crumbling POS shit and I am very much looking forward to the day when I never have to use it again when I retire in 2020. Those 3 examples are repsonsible for more lost productivity in the average work day than  any other software used by businesses. Don't  get me started on another bug infested and archetecturally POS call Sharepoint or .NET or , Skype (which MS has managed to cripple ) and then there exchange. Christ its never ending. Bill Gates is the biggest con man ever, he should be locked up and waterboarded and that should be televised so we can all get back all our energy and  fun he drained from us over the last 30 years.
    rotateleftbytedewme
  • Reply 8 of 10
    brakkenbrakken Posts: 687member
    Not a snowball's chance in hell!
  • Reply 9 of 10
    iluomoiluomo Posts: 25member
    Default mode: trash MS. Mac users are so predictable. MS is just a big company, guys. They are not the incarnation of evil any more than Apple is the supreme manifestation of good. MS makes some lame things, some middling things and some good things. I'm a Mac focused professional IT consultant and, say whatever you want, but MS Exchange and Outlook are pretty solid on a Mac (albeit, not as good as on a PC - perish the thought!). I use OneNote constantly and really like it. Don't believe me? Well, it gets incredibly good reviews on the Mac App Store by more than 23,000 users (and Mac users in Apple forums are the whiners extraordinaire, so that's saying something). Word, Excel, meh. They're ok to lame. But I think it's good that MS is trying to develop for G Suite. Apple's Mail/Contacts/Calendar apps are far from awesome. Competition is good, even from a former ruler of the universe like MS. In the end, MS, Google, Apple, their all the same: out for themselves occasionally at our expense, but many times to our benefit.
    edited April 2017
  • Reply 10 of 10
    rotateleftbyterotateleftbyte Posts: 1,630member
    paul turner said:
    Vergilius said:
    So MS is offering buggy software for free.  I remember when they used to charge a small fortune for it.

    Microsoft is far worse than that: Yes of course its buggy. Thast ist default way of doing business.  I manage to crash outlook, word, excel on a daily basis at work. At least now it doesn't take the machine with it! It s a crumbling POS shit and I am very much looking forward to the day when I never have to use it again when I retire in 2020. Those 3 examples are repsonsible for more lost productivity in the average work day than  any other software used by businesses. Don't  get me started on another bug infested and archetecturally POS call Sharepoint or .NET or , Skype (which MS has managed to cripple ) and then there exchange. Christ its never ending. Bill Gates is the biggest con man ever, he should be locked up and waterboarded and that should be televised so we can all get back all our energy and  fun he drained from us over the last 30 years.
    Never a truer set of words put on a blog. Well said sir!
    I had to use Excel/Word etc when I was working and by last boss kindly paid for the OSX version of Office. I still use it now that I'm retired but yes, I recently edited a document that was a mere 88Mb in size. Word on Windows 7 kept crashing (in a Fusion VM) but the native version handled it but messed up all the formatting (Doh!).
    Libre Office fixed it all.
    This is 2017 dammit. We should not have to go through these sorts of hoops in this day and age.
    MS needs to get off the new feature bandwagon and make everything they foist on us stable to the nth degree.

    They are still updating Silverlight which was supposed to have been retired.
    As for Sharepoint ROFL, Ha-ha, ROFL.  We used to call it the 'Document eater'. No need to say any more.

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