Outlook is one of the most widely used calendaring tools. The calendar functionality of Outlook is tightly integrated with related functionality for electronic mail, address book management, and task management. This high degree of integeration is a feature of many modern calendaring systems, and is in some sense the standard for calendaring tools.

If cross-tool integration is a desireable feature, than Outlook provides it. Such integration is not a requirement for the Calendar tool described in these requirements.

Good Features:

• a defacto standard, widely used, and therefore widely supported
• all the basic calendaring functionality is provided
• integration with related tools
• spelling and proofing tools are useful

Bad Features:

• importing is limited to selected types of calendars and other data
• closed proprietary calendar format precludes export to most other calendar tools
• multi-user support provided by an external software component, instead of built-in
• the abundance of text insert and formating tools are really overkill for calendaring program
• annoying (to some) vertical tabs
• not primarily a calendaring tool, so lacks some advanced features desired for the tool proposed in these requirements
• the "Show As" and "Privacy" properties are not well integrated

Missing Features:

• a non-proprietary data format
• sophisticated meeting scheduling, though some third-party tools exist (e.g., Presdo
• no email reminders
• sophisticated filtered viewing