Microsoft Office Outlook 2003

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 is the personal information manager and communication program that gives you a unified place to manage e-mail, calendars, contacts, and other personal and team information.

• Go menu The new, top-level Go menu makes it easy to quickly switch between panes in the Navigation Pane. If you prefer to navigate by using keyboard shortcuts, you can use the documented shortcut keys on the Go menu, such as CTRL+1 for Mail, CTRL+2 for Calendar, and CTRL+3 for Contacts.

• Navigation Pane The new, easy-to-use Navigation Pane provides centralized navigation to all parts of Outlook, and makes it easy to see your information the way you want to see it.

• Address Book The Select Names dialog box has been enhanced to display more information. You can now quickly distinguish between e-mail addresses and fax numbers for a name . The dialog box can be resized and maximized to take advantage of larger monitors .

• AutoComplete Improvements AutoComplete name suggesting has been improved in several ways. You only have to type one letter for AutoComplete to begin suggesting possible matches. People you have sent e-mail messages to most frequently and most recently will always appear first in the list of suggested names. Names you use rarely are demoted or removed from the list.

• Expand Distribution Lists in an e-mail message Quickly display all the names in a Distribution List by clicking the plus sign next to the Distribution List name. This makes it easy to add or remove a few names when addressing an e-mail message, without having to modify the Distribution List or start from scratch.

• Unique signature per account Use a different default e-mail signature for each e-mail account.

• Reading Pane The Preview Pane found in earlier versions of Outlook has been redesigned and optimized for reading e-mail messages. Like a piece of paper, the Reading Pane is laid out vertically and, when used with the new multi-line layout, displays nearly twice as much information on the screen as the Preview Pane did. Other enhancements include the ability to respond to meeting requests and to use voting buttons without having to open the messages.

• Quick Flags Click the flag icon next to any e-mail message to quickly flag it for follow-up. Multiple colored flags make it easy to categorize and find your messages. Only items you mark for follow-up are displayed in the For Follow Up Search Folder, which contains an up-to-date list of all Quick Flagged messages in all your e-mail folders.

• Multi-line layout Messages can be displayed by using either single-line layout or multi-line layout. In the new multi-line layout, four fields (From, Subject, Date, and Icon) normally are displayed in a vertical column.

• Arrangements There are 13 pre-defined standard arrangements, such as grouping messages by category, flag, and importance, that help you see your messages in different ways.

• Arrange By Conversation If you receive a lot of e-mail messages, you can now group messages in an e-mail conversation together in an arrangement that makes it easier to find and respond to conversations or "threads." To help you read your messages quickly, this arrangement initially displays only unread and Quick Flagged messages. With one click, you can expand the group to see the entire conversation, including messages you have already read.

• Rules Creating and organizing rules is now easier. You can create your own rules from scratch by using the familiar Outlook Rules Wizard, or you can choose from several ready-made rules that people typically use to manage incoming messages or stay informed. Your rules list also provides an "at a glance" summary of your rules. Each rule now displays an icon for each action you specify, allowing you to see what a rule does without having to open it.

• Search Folders Search Folders are virtual folders that contain views of all e-mail items matching specific search criteria. The e-mail messages shown remain stored in one or more Outlook folders. You can also create your own custom Search Folders, defining specific search criteria that e-mail messages must meet to be displayed in the Search Folder. You can think of each Search Folder as a saved search that is kept up-to-date, always monitoring all your folders for any item that matches that Search Folder's search criteria.

• Junk E-mail Filter The new Junk E-mail Filter is designed to work with other Outlook 2003 features to help prevent many of the unwanted e-mail messages that you receive every day. By default, this filter is set to a low setting that is designed to catch the most obvious junk e-mail. Any message that is caught by the filter is moved to a special Junk E-mail folder, where you can retrieve or review it at a later time.

• Person Names Smart Tag menu Quickly locate contact information such as a person's phone number and complete tasks such as scheduling a meeting using the Person Names Smart Tag menu. The menu is available in Outlook wherever a person's name appears.

• Contact Picture Add pictures to your contacts, giving you the ability to associate a face with a name and other information.

• Calendar view The Calendar view has been streamlined, and you can now view multiple calendars at once. In this view, the TaskPad is hidden (but can be easily shown by clicking TaskPad on the View menu), and the Date Navigator now is displayed in the Navigation Pane. A new indicator make it easy to quickly see the current day and time.

• Side-by-side calendars View multiple calendars next to your own calendar. The calendars scroll together and are color -coded and labeled to help you quickly compare schedules or schedule meetings. After you open another person's calendar, it is added to the Calendar pane in the Navigation Pane.

• Share information In the Contacts, Tasks, Notes, and Journal panes in the Navigation Pane, you can use the Share My links to quickly share your folder or the Open Shared links to open another person's shared folder.

• New Data File Type Outlook introduces a new file format for Personal Folders files (.pst) that offers greater storage capacity for items and folders and supports multilingual Unicode data. A file created with the new Outlook Personal Folders file (.pst) format is not compatible with earlier versions of Outlook. For compatibility with earlier versions of Outlook, create a file using the Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders file (.pst) format. Outlook 2003 can view and create files of either type.

• Research task pane The new Research task pane offers a wide variety of reference information and expanded resources if you have an Internet connection. You can conduct research on topics using an encyclopedia, Web search, or by accessing third-party content.

• Word as your e-mail editor simplifications When you use Word as your e-mail editor, the new E-mail toolbar is displayed directly above the message text when you compose a new message. The E-mail toolbar is displayed instead of the Formatting and Standard toolbars, which saves screen space by grouping commonly used commands from both these toolbars , such as Print and Bold, in one place.

• Exchange Server access through the Internet Outlook can now connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 through the Internet without the need to use slow and sometimes unavailable virtual private network (VPN) connections. This feature allows you to remotely access your Exchange Server 2003 account from the Internet when you are working outside your organization's firewall without any special connections or hardware, such as smart cards and security tokens.

• Cached Exchange Mode If you use a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account, it is recommended that you use Cached Exchange Mode, where a local copy of your mailbox is stored on your computer, providing you with quick access to your information regardless of changing connection types.

• Desktop Alerts The New Mail Desktop Alert improves on the New E-mail Message alert. The Desktop Alert fades in subtly with the sender's name, subject, and a short text preview, so you can immediately see whether the new message is urgent, should be marked for follow-up, or can be safely ignored without interrupting your work in another program.

• Outlook icons and taskbar notification balloon tips To conserve space on your taskbar, you can hide the Outlook 2003 window taskbar buttons when Outlook is minimized. When you hide the Outlook window taskbar buttons, the Outlook icon is displayed only in the notification area, at the far right of the taskbar.

• Information Rights Management Create or view messages with restricted permission using Information Rights Management (IRM). IRM in Outlook allows you to create messages with restricted permission to help prevent messages from being forwarded, printed, copied , or edited by unauthorized people.

• Support for ink devices Quickly provide input by adding your own handwriting to Office documents on a Tablet PC as you would using a pen and a printout.

• Shared attachments When you attach a Microsoft Office document to an e-mail message, the Attachment Options task pane is displayed. When you select the Shared attachments option, the document when sent will be stored on a Document Workspace site that is created automatically on an available server running Windows SharePoint Services.

• Meeting Workspace Centralize all the information and materials for an upcoming meeting by publishing them to a Meeting Workspace site. The site tracks the attendees, documents, tasks, and other details to plan, prepare for, and follow up after a meeting. Invitees can access the workspace anytime from a link that is added to the meeting request.

• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager add-in Create and manage business contacts, accounts, and sales opportunities in one location - Outlook, using the Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager add-in that comes with Office 2003. Related information, such as attachments, pictures, business notes, and product information, can be stored in your Outlook contacts - making it easy to integrate business contact information with appointments, tasks, reminders, and other Office programs, such as Excel.