Microsoft Outlook is a widely used desktop email client. Despite its obvious usefulness, this tool has some aspects in which its functionality is limited. One of them is in its ability to synchronize contacts with Gmail accounts, something very useful if, for example, we use several email services or if we have an Android mobile (that uses a Google account). We explain how to synchronize your Gmail contacts with Outlook through a simple tool.
The first step to take is to download the Outlook4Gmail tool from the official website . It is an add-on that integrates into Outlook and allows you to synchronize your Gmail contacts. Its installation takes up little space on the disk and is done in a fairly agile way. It works in the versions of Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003 . After installing it, we have to activate it within the mail program.
If you are using Outlook 2010 , you click on the tab "File" , then "Options" and turn to the characteristic "supplements". One of the add-ons that should appear in the list is “Outlook4Gmail”. We select it with the mouse and then click on "Complement Options" . Within the window that appears, we click on "Add New" and enter the data of our Gmail account. In "Options" , we must choose the source of contacts (we can synchronize only the Google account in Outlook, the other way around or both accounts) and then if we want to replace the redundant contacts between the two address books.
In the case of using the 2003 or 2007 versions of Outlook , go to the top menu and choose "Tools" and then "Options". If the installation of Outlook4Gmail was successful, a new tab should appear with the name of the add-in at the end. The add-on options are handled in the same way as in the 2010 version of Microsoft Outlook 2010. Once we have configured the account, we can update our contacts manually through the “Tools” window , then on the “submenu ” Outlook4Gmail ” and “ Update Contacts ” .
After testing this add-on on several computers, we have experienced several problems when adding new Gmail accounts (although we have not found echo of these problems on the network). That is why we offer this tool, since thanks to its simplicity and its integration within Outlook itself, it is an option to take into account. However, in the event that you have problems when using these tools, there are interesting alternatives that can help improve the experience of using this program.
In another article we offered you a somewhat more complex way to reach this synchronization of contacts through the “Soocial” website. In short, many different ways to access some options that should be included natively in Outlook. Although the previous version does not seem to include this option, hopefully Outlook 2013 will follow the path of Windows 8 and allow synchronization of contacts with other Google accounts without much detour.