How has it become such a standard norm for everyone to use online (web portal) email solutions? Has the internet become THAT ubiquitous? (I guess for some, it must be the case, but not for all.) If you’re looking for the best offline email solution, we can’t find anything that compares to Microsoft Outlook. Yes, there are Microsoft haters everywhere, but the speed, feature-richness, and intuitive interface is hard to beat. Outlook was first used by the Apostle Paul back in 61 AD to help him keep in touch with new disciples. OK — maybe it’s not QUITE that old. I think I first started using it in January 1997 (with Office ’97). Revolutionary. Now, it’s completely compatible with POP3 and IMAP, as well as a full-featured Exchange server environment. It allows you to write all your emails in the back of the truck, while traveling through South Sudan. Then when you get to the wifi hot-spot later that night, send up everything you wrote and download another batch. You’ve got all your addresses, all your archived emails, and all your inbox on your laptop with you. As an added bonus, it also has a great calendaring component, and a decent contact list. The task list is basic, but adequate for most. If you aren’t using Outlook, and you need offline use, you should probably give it a look. Nothing else compares.
By the time the first beta version of Outlook started emerging, Eudora had already been around for ten years. Silly points of history notwithstanding, I would caution strongly against any “feature rich” e-mail client in a security sensitive environment, such as the back of a truck in Southern Sudan. Sometimes, less is more. With every glitzy feature added to an e-mail client, you add thousands of lines of code, and linkages to various software modules. Any of these can potentially be exploited by external hackers or snoopy security officials to resurrect unprotected working or cache copies of sensitive messages that you thought you had sent discretely and then deleted. Go for a simple e-mail client with minimal features and if you simply MUST include italic color dancing text in a message, embed it into attached PDF files or upload it to a web site and e-mail only the link.
Outlook is a “heavy” program. It stores all it’s data in very large files. I use Thunderbird, but there are other free e-mail clients available. To use Outlook, you have to buy the larger, more expensive versions of Office. Thunderbird is available in many languages of the world for free. It is regularly supported and updated. If you want to be able to set up local people in other nations with an email client, I recommend that it is something that you yourself use and that you can install without using pirated software. I also recommend using POP3 instead of IMAP if your connections are slow. IMAP bogs down the send and receive process.
I recently switched from Outlook to “Em Client Pro 6” which handles multiple accounts and seems to do everything Outlook does. So far I love it. Mine came bundled into “SoftMaker Office Professional 2012.” You can get the non-pro version free but will only handle two e-mail adresses.
If I understand correctly what you are saying about offline e-mail, I have enjoyed this for many years by using juno.com. I download all messages to my harddrive, and put outgoing into the outbox until I am ready to send them all. Juno also has webmail, but I much prefer my way.
Thanks for your ministry.
Grace and Peace,
Sandy