Excel vs. Outlook task list

There are two popular software products in the range of Microsoft office solutions: Excel and Outlook. Many people who use one of these products wonder what makes Excel task list better (or worse) than Outlook one and what outstanding features for task management each of the products has. This article will describe features for managing both task list for Excel and Outlook to help you understand the products. Also the article will point at alternatives to both products and show an example of task management software that successfully competes with Excel features, as well as with Outlook task management capabilities.

Task list in Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet management application which has the primary purpose to help users manage and calculate data. Task management is the secondary purpose, so this solution does not have some features that are particular to original task management software applications.

To create task list in Excel , you need to open a new spreadsheet and use cells and rows to specify task names, date characteristics, names of assigned employees, and formulas to perform calculations. In such a way you can create new task lists in MS Excel . If you need to create tasks lists frequently (everyday or several times a day), the mentioned way becomes not so convenient because you have to make the same operations many times to create similar task lists. That's why it's recommended using daily templates that allow designing and copying sample task lists quickly. MS Excel templates can be designed manually, or you can download ready-to-use Excel templates from the Web for free.

Outstanding features for managing task list in Excel are the following:

• Performing calculations in cells and rows of tasks lists for Excel
• Creating and customizing diagrams and charts
• Inserting objects in Excel worksheets

Task list in Outlook
MS Outlook is a powerful solution to manage shared task lists and exchange emails. Shared task list Outlook software offers task list view, calendar view and contacts view to plan, assign, manage and track tasks in an effective manner. Just like MS Excel task list templates , daily task list Outlook templates can be downloaded for free from Internet, so you can save your time and apply typical templates to planning and managing daily duties. You can print task list Outlook templates and use them as paper organizers to perform jobs and tasks. Outlook task list printing options also allow printing task calendars and schedules.

Emailing and sharing task list in Outlook are easy things to do. The problem with this solution is that it requires Windows Exchange Server. This means if you want to share task list in Outlook , you have to spend money on purchasing, installing and maintaining MS Server.

Outstanding features for managing task list in Outlook are the following:

Alternatives to the MS products
Even if you are quite sure that any of the MS products is the best solution for you, you need to know there are solutions that may offer better features to manage tasks and todo lists. Such solutions can be more cost-effective, rather featured and often less problematic. For example, VIP Task Manager offers some features that are not included in both MS Excel and MS Outlook. These features are:

• Workflow Editor that allows creating and customizing statuses of tasks to design specific workflows for projects or processes
• Task Tree view to create tree-like structures for projects and hierarchies for task lists
• Task history tracking tool to check and monitor changes applied to tasks.

VIP Task Manager is a client-server software product. Unlike MS Outlook software, it uses a free database management system to share tasks and establish user collaboration. You don't have to pay for the server component of the software, only the client component is to be paid. You can try and evaluate VIP Task Manager for free within 30 days (the 30-day trial period).