Eric said:
Ofice and Outlook 2002 is all I own, so I have to make it work
somehow.
The Outlook Tips article to which I provided a link gives you hints on
how to get OL2002 to work under later versions of Windows. I didn't
duplicate here that article. The script solution is more clumsy than
using the add-on; however, the script solution is free while the add-on
costs 10 euros (~$14 USD).
There are freeware substitutes. On a laptop, and like you where I
didn't want to provide more revenue out of my shallow personal pockets,
I use the free Kingsoft Suite 2014. If you aren't used to or don't like
the MS Office ribbon UI and instead prefer the older menu style UI then
Kingsoft Office will be very familiar to you. I know lots of other
folks use OpenOffice or LibreOffice, both free, but they are too bloated
and load too slow for my taste and needs for an office suite. None of
those include an e-mail client but I found EssentialPIM.
When I was also back on Outlook 2002 but got a newer host with a newer
OS and ran into your problems, I didn't want to spend the money to get a
newer version of Microsoft Office that gave me no bang for the buck.
Yeah, maybe they had lots more features but I wasn't using all of what I
already had and had no need for those extras in the newer version.
EssentialPIM came very close as a PIM replacement for Outlook. At
first, their free version only handled 1 e-mail account. That wouldn't
do because I had 6. Eventually they removing some of the crippling in
their free version and allowed an unlimited number of e-mail accounts.
I like their note function far more than in Outlook. I would've started
with their free version and might've eventually bought their payware
version which is still far cheaper than buying a standalone copy of
Outlook (any version).
Instead I decided to define a search at eBay with a price limit of $40,
the max that I would spend on a newer version of MS Office. It took
many months before I managed to get a bid and win at that price because
so many other buyers were willing to pay more (in fact, many would pay
the full retail price). I also had to weed out the suspicious or
untrustworthy sellers, would deal only with a US-based seller, and had
other filter criteria in my eBay search. I could get MS Office 2003 for
so cheap and was willing to wait for it. Later I got a defective
computer from buddy that belonged to his brother. I replaced the PSU,
figured out how to use some software to overcome a defective thermistor
on the mobo, and replace the video card (which died soon after replacing
the PSU). That came with Office 2010. I don't care for the stupid
ribbon which has me doing more mousing and it was the Home edition that
didn't include Outlook, so I'm still using Outlook 2003 with the rest
that is Office 2010 (I don't need the integration features).
If I hadn't gotten MS Office 2003 for a significantly cheaper cost, I'd
be using Kingsoft (or maybe LibreOffice) with EssentialPIM.
http://www.kingsoftstore.com/software/kingsoft-office-freeware
(they have a $70 Pro version but the free version is enough for me)
http://www.libreoffice.org/
I've had another user mention to me the Softmaker FreeOffice product as
a contender against Kingsoft's Office Free. Both have the menu & toolbar
style UI instead of emulating Microsoft's ribbon bar UI.
http://www.freeoffice.com/en/download
As with the other freebie office suites, you still need to add an
e-mail/PIM product to substitute for Outlook. Lots of folks use Mozilla
Thunderbird but I didn't care for it. Lots of folks use Thunderbird
because they think that's there only other choice.
http://essentialpim.com/
(their freeware is very good, $40 for Pro version)
EssentialPIM Pro has enough extra features that I would like to have
that, if I were using the free version, I would pay $40 to get it. So
with the combo of Kingsoft (or Softmaker) and EssentialPIM, my out of
pocket cost would be $40.
