I Need Phone - Tablet - PC Advice

[hike2kolob]

I am at a crossroads in my IT situation and I know my peeps at Bogely are all over this stuff, so here goes.

I am a heavy Microsoft Office 2010 user (heavy Word and some Excel and Power Point) spending most of my time at my desk using my Windows 7 PC. I have used an iPhone until it died this week.

Because of my iPhone emergency, I went to go get the new iPhone 5 as a replacement but decided to try out the Droid ecosystem. I got the Galaxy Note (because the Note II was not yet out) with the understanding I have now just under 14 days to return it and get whatever else I want (iPhone 5, Galaxy SIII, Galaxy Note II or Windows 8 phone).

I am at a crossroads and need your input.

Here is my killer app need. When I am out of the office and reply to emails on my phone or tablet, I want my email reply to look just like I sent it from my desktop Microsoft Outlook, which matches exactly all the fonts and html signatures and formats used by Outlook.

I use Google Apps to sync my Outlook email, calender, contacts etc with my iPhone previously and currently my Droid. However, you can tell when I reply to emails using my phone and though it syncs pretty well with Outlook, tasks and some other things don't work as well. I have tried to make Gmail match my Outlook, but due do the limited fonts in Gmail and the way Gmail quotes replies, it just doesn't work and you can see the difference.

I am thinking of switching to the Windows 8 system, which I am hoping will be device neutral. This would mean I would move from Google Apps to Windows 365 and I would also likely get a Windows 8 phone.

Does anyone have experience with 365 and the new Windows 8 ecosystem? If I make the switch can I really manage it so that you can't tell if I am replying from desktop, tablet or phone?

I spoke with the Windows 8 rep at the AT&T store today, but this person was pretty clueless about my issue. It also doesn't help that Microsoft named its new web based email Outlook, the same as its desktop app that is ubiquitous in business.

Thanks for any input you can provide.

[DOSS]

So if I understand right you just want the email you send from your phone to match what your work email looks like.. Couldn't you go the other way easier.. make your emails look as good as you can from your phone and then make your desktop email look like that

[hike2kolob]

So if I understand right you just want the email you send from your phone to match what your work email looks like.. Couldn't you go the other way easier.. make your emails look as good as you can from your phone and then make your desktop email look like that

Yes. This is pretty much my killer app need right now. I have tried going this route, using simple Tahoma in Gmail and using that same font in Outlook. New emails I send look close, but replies don't match at all. Also, I have to use the web version of Gmail through the browser to do this and the Gmail app for Driod, you can't add an HTML nor Rich Text signature.

I have done a bit more research and I think that switching to Office 365 may be my answer.

[DiscGo]

Office 365 is great. Galaxy Note is a good phone, though it would be painful to get that phone right now when it is SO close to the Note 2. I'd suggest you stay way from Windows 8 for now. If you are really good with Windows shortcuts it is manageable but in my opinion it still requires some tweaks from Microsoft.

[Sombeech]

For your emails to match, is it pretty much a font issue? I'd suggest changing the font from your Outlook (PC) client to a more universal font that all devices will come preinstalled with. Then you're not frustrated when the "Comic Sans" isn't available on your device.

You'll also have to manually edit the signature on your outgoing email from any mobile device to match your PC signature. It will be default as "sent from my _____". That is probably your biggest giveaway. Are you trying to hide attention to that fact to keep things simple?

One thing you will have zero control over is when some people customize their email client to view emails in a certain font, it will take your font from whatever device you sent it from and display it in perhaps the Hello Kitty font. In that scenario they won't notice the font difference between your PC and phone/tablet. They've got it set to change over once it hits their machine, and they might even have a purple stationary background because that's just how bored they are at work, and they call it being a "power user". Granted, this will be a small minority of users. And if the receiver is viewing it through a totally different system like Yahoo, Gmail, Incredimail, Thunderbird, Hotmail... You'll just have very little you can control on how they view your email message.

What other kinds of similarities were you trying to match up with your email? Maybe post a screenshot?

As far as editing documents and sending them on their way, there are many versatile ways you can do this with almost any device. Each OS will have a variety of Office editing apps, some free, some paid. You can even check out the cloud storage apps like SkyDrive (microsoft) and Google Drive (formerly known as Google Docs). These both allow online editing of the document and easy sharing without going through the email client.

[hike2kolob]

Office 365 is great. Galaxy Note is a good phone, though it would be painful to get that phone right now when it is SO close to the Note 2. I'd suggest you stay way from Windows 8 for now. If you are really good with Windows shortcuts it is manageable but in my opinion it still requires some tweaks from Microsoft.

Thanks for the input. I really like the Note so far. The Note is just a placeholder for whatever I pick out in the next 11 or so days, but I had to have a phone the day my iPhone died. I wanted to try something different from the iPhone and I wanted to try Android and the larger size to see if I could deal with it. I think I like the size and I like the stylus.

I am currently leaning towards the Note II which is now available with AT&T. I test drove that today. It is everything I like about the Note, plus it is a bit slimmer in hand and seemed much snapier. The stylus also feels and works a bit better. I even have found the Graffiti app which I liked from the old Palm Pilot days.

I really think I want to switch to 365 because I am so Microsoft Office dependent. The Windows 8 phone was underwhelming when I compared it to the Note.

[DiscGo]

Office 365 is supposed to be coming to Android and iOS next year.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[hike2kolob]

For your emails to match, is it pretty much a font issue? I'd suggest changing the font from your Outlook (PC) client to a more universal font that all devices will come preinstalled with. Then you're not frustrated when the "Comic Sans" isn't available on your device.

You'll also have to manually edit the signature on your outgoing email from any mobile device to match your PC signature. It will be default as "sent from my _____". That is probably your biggest giveaway. Are you trying to hide attention to that fact to keep things simple?

One thing you will have zero control over is when some people customize their email client to view emails in a certain font, it will take your font from whatever device you sent it from and display it in perhaps the Hello Kitty font. In that scenario they won't notice the font difference between your PC and phone/tablet. They've got it set to change over once it hits their machine, and they might even have a purple stationary background because that's just how bored they are at work, and they call it being a "power user". Granted, this will be a small minority of users. And if the receiver is viewing it through a totally different system like Yahoo, Gmail, Incredimail, Thunderbird, Hotmail... You'll just have very little you can control on how they view your email message.

What other kinds of similarities were you trying to match up with your email? Maybe post a screenshot?

As far as editing documents and sending them on their way, there are many versatile ways you can do this with almost any device. Each OS will have a variety of Office editing apps, some free, some paid. You can even check out the cloud storage apps like SkyDrive (microsoft) and Google Drive (formerly known as Google Docs). These both allow online editing of the document and easy sharing without going through the email client.

Regarding matching, it is a combination of three things. A font issue, a signature issue and the way the email client quotes the reply message.

The font issue in the email text I have close to figured out. Tahoma normal in Gmail is close to Tahoma 10 in Outlook.

The signature is no problem because I can use a custom signature in Gmail web-based that matches the signature I use in Outlook. My signature has colored fonts and fonts I have been using for a while. It would also be nice to include a logo at some point. However, if I want to customize the signature in the Gmail App for droid, that does not accept rich text so the font cannot be unusual or colored. I could make everything plain Tahoma or something but it would not look like it was sent from Outlook, it would look like it was sent from a phone app, which is what I am trying to avoid. I understand that whatever the client views the email in will change the formatting, though most of my contacts that I would care about use Outlook which preserves the original formatting.

Finally, Outlook normally just adds your email on top of the formatting of the prior email string being replied to. Gmail wants to add arrows to the side of the quoted replied to email and puts the signature in a different place so you can see the difference.

I think I can stick to the Droid phone if I switch to Office 365 from Google Apps. Then I think there are a couple of Droid apps that will connect through the Office 365 email interface and I believe it is like sending from my Desktop. I think...

Thanks for your input. I was wondering if I was the only one who wants to reply to emails and have it look location neutral.

[Sombeech]

Do you currently have webaccess to your work email?

[hike2kolob]

Do you currently have webaccess to your work email?

I use Google Apps, so yes I have web acsess to work email, but it is though the Gmail web portal. I understand by switching to Office 365 I would use a Microsoft exchange type of portal instead.

[hike2kolob]

I use Google Apps, so yes I have web acsess to work email, but it is though the Gmail web portal. I understand by switching to Office 365 I would use a Microsoft exchange type of portal instead.

I am having a hard time formatting email replies from an iPhone or Droid so that they look like they were sent by an outlook desktop client.

I signed up for a trial Office 365 account, which I think will be a great replacement for Google Apps for what I do. If I use the Outlook Web App from a windows computer with a full function browser, it works about perfectly. However if you try to use a browser on an iPhone or Droid then it automatically signs you into Outlook Web App lite and removes the formatting (rich text) formatting that would normally be in the full Outlook Web App.

I have tried quite a few Droid apps and the iPhone email client and they just don't quite do it. Touchdown syncs very well with exchange and looks close (at least it passes the HTML formatting of the prior email chain), but the way it puts a dashed line between the new message and replied to message doesn't match.

I guess I will tak a look again at the Windows phone to see if that does it. I understand there should be an outlook mobile on that.

[hike2kolob]

I guess I will tak a look again at the Windows phone to see if that does it. I understand there should be an outlook mobile on that.

I stopped by the AT&T store and one of the representatives was nice enough to let me play around with his new Nokia Windows Phone 8. I was able to quickly add my Office 365 test account and had it synced in no time. The email client even kept the HTML formatting of the email string I was replying to. However, I could not add an HTML signature in the phone email client. If it could do that, then the Windows Phone 8 would be the closest in replicating email communications from desktop Outlook.

I didn't really care for the Windows Phone 8 layout, so I think I will get the Note II and wait for Office 365 to come to the Android system. I think I can root it and maybe do what I want to it.