Collaboration and Sharing Improvements

Outlook 2007 adds several new features and improves on existing features to make collaboration and sharing even easier. SharePoint integration is a key new feature.

Integration with Office SharePoint Server

Outlook 2007 integrates with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites to enable you to interact with information stored on a SharePoint site. For example, you can connect shared calendars, document libraries, discussion lists, contacts, and tasks from a SharePoint site to Outlook 2007. SharePoint items show up in a folder named SharePoint Lists, which appears in the Navigation Pane along with your Outlook 2007 folders. You can then work with the items from the SharePoint site as if you were working on Outlook 2007 items. Changes that you make are updated on the SharePoint site.

Note 

Outlook 2007 also integrates with Windows SharePoint Services versions 2 and 3.

The following list summarizes many of the key tasks that you can perform in Outlook 2007 with SharePoint items:

• Connect a SharePoint library to Outlook 2007.  Connecting a SharePoint library to Outlook 2007 makes the library and its items available within Outlook 2007. You connect the library to Outlook 2007 from the SharePoint site.

• Download a file from a SharePoint library to Outlook 2007.  You can download just a list of available files or the files themselves, or you can have Outlook 2007 download files in the background. The SharePoint site administrator can control how and whether files are downloaded to client systems.

• Open a file from a SharePoint library using Outlook 2007.  You can navigate to a SharePoint library in the Navigation Pane, locate the file you want, and simply double-click the file to open it.

• Edit a file from a SharePoint library using Outlook 2007.  You can modify a document from a SharePoint library offline from Outlook 2007 and save the changes to the library (assuming that you have sufficient permissions in the library).

• Remove a SharePoint file from Outlook 2007.  You can remove one or more files from a SharePoint library list in Outlook 2007 without actually removing the documents from the SharePoint library. The document remains on the server but is removed from your cached list. This feature simplifies browsing libraries that contain a large number of items.

• Remove a SharePoint library from Outlook 2007.  If you don’t need to see a particular library anymore, you can easily remove it from Outlook 2007. Removing the library does not affect it on the server, but only removes it from the Navigation Pane in Outlook 2007.

• Add a file to a SharePoint library by sending an e-mail message.  If the SharePoint document library is configured to accept documents by e-mail, you can add a document to a library simply by sending an e-mail message, with the document attached, to the library.

Shared Calendars

Outlook 2007 adds some great new features to make it possible to share your schedule with others and to view their schedules as well. For example, you can create a calendar snapshot that you can send in an e-mail message to others. The recipient can open the calendar in Outlook 2007 or in a Web browser.

Outlook 2007 also supports Internet Calendars, which are calendars stored on an Internet service and available for download and synchronization in Outlook 2007. You can create a calendar in Outlook 2007 and publish it to an Internet service or use other applications to create the calendar. If you subscribe to a calendar-sharing service, Outlook 2007 can query the service on a periodic basis to upload and download calendar changes. Microsoft offers Internet Calendar sharing through the Microsoft Office Online Web site.

Note 

In addition to these calendar-sharing features, you can still save your calendar to a Web page, enabling you to publish your calendar to any Web server.

Shared Business Cards

You are probably familiar with contacts in Outlook 2007. In Outlook 2007, you can create electronic business cards complete with photos, logos, text, and other content. Outlook 2007 stores these business cards in the Contacts folder. You can share these business cards with others through e-mail and receive their cards as well.