Still no way to sync tasks w/ Outlook?

[Steel36]

It's hard to believe that Google still hasn't updated Android to include a Task sync feature for Outlook. Then again, their contact photo resolution is still 60 pixels, so I sometimes wonder if anyone is even tending the store.

 

[jayhammy]

I purchased Touchdown for Android from the Market. It's much better than the stock Android mail app. And it allows for tasks.

 

[Steel36]

I've heard that, and there are a few other 3rd party options, but it's surprising that it's not cooked in.

 

[jayhammy]

I've heard that, and there are a few other 3rd party options, but it's surprising that it's not cooked in.

Yeah, I know. I guess that's why there's such a thing as third party developers: they fill in the void that first party cannot.

other great things I like about Touchdown are:
1. You can have it "speak" your emails. Great for while doing something else that keeps your hands busy.
2. Turn an email into a task or event in one step: I really like this one. Sometimes I'll get an email with a lot of info in it. I just click "make event" and it puts all the email info directly into my calendar entry under comments. I just add the time/date etc. Then later I don't have to go looking for the email. Sweet!

 

[Homan13PSU]

I've heard that, and there are a few other 3rd party options, but it's surprising that it's not cooked in.

My wife is using the trial version while she's on maternity leave and we'll spring for the full version when she goes back to work. She really has no choice as its the only option her company will allow her to use.

In my limited playing around with it the only downside I found is its cost.

 

[MrSmoofy]

I purchased gsyncit as it lets me sync contacts, calendar and notes. Calendar goes into a google calendar and notes go into gdocs I've been asking the developer to do Tasks as well.

 

[Kilo7]

I use Gsyncit, its sync with google contacts , calender.

 

[robpatti12]

You can use the HTC Sync program and it will sync contacts and calendar. It is also free.

 

[elborak]

You can use the HTC Sync program and it will sync contacts and calendar. It is also free.

Huh? That's exactly the OP's complaint: it doesn't sync tasks.

 

[marky2mark]

Yeah, I know. I guess that's why there's such a thing as third party developers: they fill in the void that first party cannot.

other great things I like about Touchdown are:
1. You can have it "speak" your emails. Great for while doing something else that keeps your hands busy.
2. Turn an email into a task or event in one step: I really like this one. Sometimes I'll get an email with a lot of info in it. I just click "make event" and it puts all the email info directly into my calendar entry under comments. I just add the time/date etc. Then later I don't have to go looking for the email. Sweet!

How do you make Touchdown speak your emails?

 

[Alexander1977]

How do you make Touchdown speak your emails?

+1 for Touchdown. That program rocks. Download the beta that they have, it addresses the major HTC Incredible/Touchdown problem (contacts duplicating). Also the user interface in beta is much better and is so customizable. The best part is the customer service...wow. Email replies within an hour or so.

As for speaking emails (who from, etc). Settings, advanced settings, email alerts. You can set it to just say who it is from or who it is from and subject, etc. Just be careful the "speaking" emails can get you in trouble if a certain someone is around and you get A LOT of emails from a different certain someone. Keep hearing, "Message from ****", "Message from *****" lol.

 

[smackboy1]

I sync Outlook 2007 calendar, contacts, notes and tasks using Companion Link and DejaOffice (I think they are actually the same company). It recognizes Outlook categories and for business use it works better than native Android apps.

Sync calendar and contacts on Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry - CompanionLink
DejaOffice - Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes Apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad

Companion Link is $40, DejaOffice is free. There is 30 day free trial. It's not perfect. It feels like a working beta; in fact updates are released almost weekly. But it's probably the least crappy solution for Outlook sync.

Companion Link is the sync interface on the PC. It has lots of settings to control syncing, much more than HTC Sync. DejaOffice is a suite of proprietary Android apps for calendar, contacts, notes and tasks. Outlook syncs directly with DejaOffice. The DejaOffice apps work pretty well. In general they are as good as, if not better than native Android apps. For example: in DejaContacts you can search for keywords in different fields like notes or company name. You can also sort by first name or last name or company name. DejaCalendar doesn't screw up all the recurring Outlook calendar events like Android Calendar does. There are shortcomings however. There are no widgets available yet (although this is a promised update at some future date).

The way DejaOffice works is that it creates it's own proprietary database on the SD card. Companion Link first syncs Outlook calendar, contacts, notes and tasks to this database. In the second step, DejaOffice syncs the proprietary data to the native Android contact data (or this can be manually disabled). The DInc phone dialer and caller ID work off the native Android contact data so if you want everything to match up to Outlook it should be in sync. This is not mandatory if you don't care about the phone dialer and caller ID in sync with Outlook. For instance you can have the phone set up to sync with Google Contacts online. It's actually possible to maintain several entirely separate sets of calendar and contacts data using a combination of DejaOffice, phone only memory, and Google online calendar and contacts.

Just be warned that the initial installation and setup can be glitchy and it will take some tweaking and several syncs and re-syncs before you get everything working exactly has you want. The good thing is that tech support is pretty responsive and the updates fix any problems that crop up. If you have a lot of Outlook contacts, I think there is a limit

 

[golfer0305]

I purchased gsyncit as it lets me sync contacts, calendar and notes. Calendar goes into a google calendar and notes go into gdocs I've been asking the developer to do Tasks as well.

gSyncit is an awesome app and it does a great job of syncing Outlook tasks. To take full advantage and receive task reminders on your phone, you must add/create a Google calendar that is dedicated to tasks. The gSyncit task sync process can then be set to sync Outlook tasks with your task dedicated Google calendar. Complete and easy to follow instructions can be found in the gSyncit Getting Started Guide.

 

[smackboy1]

It's been a while since I tried Google Calendar tasks. At the time it was very primitive compared to Outlook tasks. Missing features like categories, recurring tasks, task reminders, priority etc.. If you are using a system like GTD (Getting Things Done), Google Calendar tasks was hopeless. Has it been improved?

 

[golfer0305]

Like you, I have never been a fan of Google Calendar tasks. Fortunately you can totally bypass them by using gSyncit. This is accomplished by adding/creating a Google "Calendar" that is used solely for syncing Outlook tasks. By doing so, gSyncit treats Outlook tasks as "events" and enables full functionality of reminders and recurrences. I cannot speak to priority and category functionality as I do not typically use them in Outlook tasks.