Outlook 2003 New Features (Outlook 2003)

[d_perotto]

I'm going to convert to Outlook 2003 in about a week. Is there are good site that expalins the New features. It seem the interface is alittle different, Ithe Inbox shows messages differently, etc. Can't see the public folder? Help.

[JohnBF]

There are a number of things you can do to get close to the 2000/XP view, or you can experiment with the new layout capabilities and settle on what you like. A few quick comments:

Under View, you can change the default reading pane layout

You can turn on or off the navigation pane, but 'off' makes it hard to move around among resources and folder views

At the bottom of the task pane you have the options to select between message, contacts, calendar, notes, task, journal, and folder views. Only under Folder views do you see Public Folders. You can also squeeze the bottom piece down so you just see the icons for each view type, which I have done and like to use.

As you may have read in other threads, I'm not a fan of the layout changes, but they really seem to work well for other people.

[TonyE]

For an overview of many of the new features check <post#=370737>post 370737</post#>

Microsoft has quite a bit of info about the new version on their Outlook 2003 product information page. In particular the reviewer's guide is worth looking at, bearing in mind that it is written by Microsoft so is aimed at showing the product in the best possible light.

[Eowyn]

The interface is a little different, but IMHO, an incremental difference, not a fundamental difference. You can see a quickie view of Outlook here <IMG SRC=http://www.microsoft.com/office/images/outlook/prodinfo/outlook_small.gif>, The PROS and CONS are personal opinion.

Email changes
Yes, the three-pane view is usually shown with the body of the message at right. An incremental change, PRO: at right allows you to see more of the message at a glance. No need to double-click to open message, less scrolling. CON: the default navigation pane is large, so your folder list pane is smaller. My preference: If you have many subfolders, shrink the navigation to small icons.

Grouping -- another incremental difference. Default is to group by date/time. Easy to see which messages are from today, yesterday, last week, etc. You can change the grouping to other criteria, such as Person, Conversation, etc. PRO: It's all good. CON: nothing

Mail Search folders -- ok, fundamental difference; usually described as virtual folders. These are saved Searches. Outlook 2003 has 3 pre-set search folders "Follow-up", "Large" and "Unread" Click on the folder marked unread, and all the mail in all the folders that is unread is shown in one pane. Click on follow-up and all the mail that 's been flagged, even in multiple folders is shown. PRO: The follow-up one is a great "new feature" the unread is pretty much the same as the VIEW unread messages, except now multiple folders. I haven't really come up with too many personal search folders, because I keep things pretty neatly filed, but I did hear of someone using search folders in combination with Newsgator.

Calendar--incremental difference
in an Exchange environment, the side-by-side calendars are so much nicer than the Plan a Meeting feature. I have my calendar, the boss's calendar and public folder calendars in the same window. The only CON: Especially with multiple calendars, the task pad and the navigation pane, the calendar ought to have the most room by default, but instead equal room is devoted to those three elements Weekly views are stingy, Monthly is ridiculous

Public Folders
The public folder list is somewhat divorced from your mail folders and your calendar folders.However, if you mark certain folders as favorites you can "marry" them. Now when I click on contacts, I can easily flip between my personal contacts and the public "tech-contacts" and my calendar also has a place for the public "tech-calendar"