Skype Toolbar for Outlook updated!
I am very happy to finally announce that the Skype Toolbar for Outlook has been updated.
The most important changes are:
- Support for Outlook 2007 – when you open an email or a contact item you will get a Skype task pane to the right allowing you to initiate communication via Skype very swiftly.
- Much faster startup performance (except the first time you log into a profile) – the caching is now done in a much better way
- When reading email only the sender of the email is analyzed. Previously up to 10 other recipients were also analyzed. This also increases performance a lot.
- Selecting appointments are no longer supported – we are trying to make the product simpler and this feature was cut
- On demand analyzing of other recipients. When you create a conference, multichat etc from an email the other recipients (apart from the sender) is analyzed when needed, not in advance.
| To make the most of your use of the Outlook Toolbar we have made a 17 minutes long video demonstration of the toolbar in action. Here is the link to that! |
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| Then, of course, I urge you to download and try it for yourself! |  |
I like the new (1.1.0.37) version of the Skype Toolbar for Outlook. It is a great productivity tool. Any serious (or even casual) user of Skype and Outlook should at least try it.
For future development, I think the Toolbar’s UI that pushes itself into opened contacts and e-mails is a bit large. It would be nice if there was a compact setting and if you could choose which components (Skype addresses, phone numbers, SMS, chat, etc.) it mines for and pushes at the user.
I had the old version and think it was much better overall. Although I like some of the new features, I have noticed the following problems (and it has only been installed for a few hours):
1. Performance is MUCH worse than before. The system hangs when starting calls and sometimes the calls don’t work at all.
2. The new UI is way too big. I liked that is was a small window at the top that I could access as needed, but didn’t intrude on what I was doing.
I will probably find more, but these are a MAJOR issue and I wish I could reinstall the old one, but alas I no longer have the installation file. I guess I will learn for future releases to keep the old file in case the “upgrade” is really a step backwards.
I have a question: Does it still work with Outlook 2003 and if so, are there any glitches with the old version of MS Office Outlook?
Thanx.
mafrica-pilot
there seems to be a conflict with this tool bar and vista or this tool bar and Outlook with business contact manager
I use the new skype tool bar for couple of days. There are some two problems:
(1) “Simplified Chinese” language is displayed instead of “Traditional Chinese” or “English”. I come from Taiwan, it should display tranditional Chinese language.
(2) The Outlook launch speed is very slow after installing the tool bar. It takes 3 to 5 seconds for Outlook to be ready for use.
I like the tool bar very much. It would be much better if these problems can be solved ASAP.
skype.ios.st
How do I one-click dial my Outlook Business Contact Manager contacts using Skype? I have Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, Skype 3.8.0.188, Skype Toolbar for Outlook, and Windows Vista. When I click on a BCM contact phone number in Skype Toolbar for Outlook, a Skype window opens and I have to enter the phone number manually. Is this the best I can do?
It would be nice to interface with the phone log in BCM and instead of getting the option for modem get a Skype option also.
Another thing I noticed is that the Skype toolbar is working for normal outlook contacts but when you move any contacts in your BCM accounts, the Skype toolbar ignores this section except for the first name in the list. You must duplicate your Outlook contacts in both folders. It would be nice to link the call log in BCM to the account.
This toolbar seems to load a lot faster than Skylook (which I tried and uninstalled recently because Outlook crashed repeatedly) however, basic functions like synchronizing Skype contacts and Outlook contacts is still a problem. Most of the time, the Skype name is different than the Outlook contact name, (I create the Outlook contact info and the contact creates their own Skype name, which is often just a first name), so the two don’t match and the Skype toolbar clearly can’t synch. Further, if you enable the feature that creates or modifies an Outlook contact, this results in duplicates. Major headaches, disappointing results so far, but I love the idea. Hope this improves.
Hi Peter
I clicked to have a look at the video. I get this reply http://www.screencast.com/404.aspx
Has the video moved?
Secondly, Is there a solution for the previously mentioned outlook BCM add-in?
I echo the previous questions regarding Business Contact Manager in Outlook. I don’t maintain every contact in the regular contacts database. Can you respond the p_dhuy’s post above? Thanks.
The problem with this interface is that it is (for business purposes) very, very minimal. There is really only one issue – when one is fast dialing to contact an account or a contact in BCM, one right clicks on the contact or the account and then selects “Call” in the drop down box. From here, Skype should be able to be designated as the default calling choice. This would be very helpful for speed. At this point, BCM asks if you want to create a call log for the contact so there is no reason to open the contact manually. It seems that Skype does the minimum integration for the most popular contact management system for small business. If Skype took these things seriously, it would be an incredible competitive advantage and selling tool.