Outlook 2003 Introduction

Outlook 2003 is a major new release of Outlook. It sports a new look, new features, a new storage format, and even new methods of connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server. This chapter introduces you to each of these features. You'll find more details about all of these features in later chapters of this book, and I've provided cross-referencing information for each new item.

Why Should You Upgrade to Outlook 2003?

The questions of whether to upgrade and when are always hard ones. There are a few scenarios in which an upgrade is highly recommended and a few scenarios in which it's probably better to wait a while before you upgrade.

If you need to buy a new computer from any of the major computer manufacturers after Office 2003 is released, chances are you'll have the opportunity to purchase a Microsoft Office System 2003 package with that computer. This is one of the scenarios in which an upgrade is probably a good idea. You can often get a reduced price on an Office 2003 suite. For example, on the day this chapter was written (before the official release of Office 2003), you could purchase Office XP Professional (which retails for $499), for an additional $329 with a new laptop computer. The price savings you can realize by purchasing a copy of Office 2003 with a new computer can often make the upgrade decision for you. If you're faced with purchasing a new computer with the newest version of Office or purchasing a standalone copy of the last version of Office, you'll probably save money by purchasing the new version of Office with your new computer.

If you currently use Office 97, you also should seriously consider upgrading to Office 2003. Although you'll have to judge for yourself whether Office 2003 is worth the price for the upgrade, keep in mind that the end of lifecycle for Office 97 (that is, the date on which Microsoft ceased to provide mainstream support for the product) was in 2001. If you need support from Microsoft for an Office 97 product, you'll need to pay to talk to a live person. You can, of course, continue to use newsgroups or the Internet for support, but if you need extended support, you'll have to pay to talk to Microsoft Product Support Services. Even Microsoft Office 2000 mainstream support will end in June 2004.

You should also upgrade if you need, or even just want, the new features offered in Office 2003. In addition to the new features of Outlook 2003 that are discussed in this chapter, the rest of Office 2003 has some nice upgrades as well. Word has a new reading layout designed to give you a quick look at your document. All Office applications have a research feature built in. You can use this feature to examine a variety of resources for help or information on a specific topic. If you want to use some of Microsoft's new companion products to Office, such as InfoPath and OneNote, you'll need Office 2003 to take advantage of the integration features available in those two products.

You can upgrade to Outlook 2003 without upgrading the entire Office suite. There are some features you'll miss out on if you use Outlook 2003 without Office 2003. You cannot use Word as your email editor if the versions of Outlook and Office do not match. In addition, some of the advanced contact features, such as New Letter to Contact, won't work unless you have the entire Office 2003 suite.

One typical scenario for upgrading Outlook before Office involves Exchange Server. If you currently run Microsoft Exchange 2003, or will be upgrading soon, keep in mind that your client access license for Exchange 2003 will also serve as a client access license for Outlook 2003.

Even though there are a number of reasons to upgrade, there are definitely reasons not to upgrade. If your entire organization is using an earlier version of the Office suite, you probably want to continue using the same version of Office as the rest of the company. Of course, you can always show them this chapter and convince them to upgrade or install Office 2003 (with your system administrator's permission, of course) and then show the decision makers how helpful the new productivity features can be.