Welcome to the One Window to your World of Information
What is Outlook?
Microsoft Outlook( (formerly code-named Ren) is a desktop information management application that helps you and your team:
1) organize and share information on your desktop
2) communicate with others.
Use Outlook to manage: email, calendar, contacts, tasks/to-do's, and documents/files on your hard drive. Outlook helps you communicate with others because it has e-mail, phone support and group scheduling. Outlook also helps you share your information with others via public folders, forms, and Internet connectivity.
Backgound on Outlook
To properly architect Outlook, we carefully examined many of the recent productivity trends in the marketplace: groupware, PIMs and the Internet. We found that groupware (as it was originally defined) is now either a greatly expanded and broadened category encompassing not just one to many "publishing", but also e-mail, scheduling, etc., or one that is in the process of being expunged by the Internet. In addition, personal information is still very important to users, but only if it can be entered in such a way as to be easily shared with others at a later date, using standard messaging protocols. Finally, users want to be able to look at information in a multi-dimensional manner. Folders and tables have worked fine in the past, but today's dynamic information requires dynamic views of data.
Today, we have no shortage of information, but how do you find that information? Where is it? Consider your work environment, and all the places where information lives:
1. Paper calendar or paper planner.
2. Computer hard disk, storing megabytes of data.
3. E-mail - As more and more people use email, information flows easily. People can attach documents and files. As email folders grow, however, it becomes harder to find a particular message or attachment.
4. Personal information managers - Many people are using PIMs to handle their contacts, tasks, and free notes, and to group schedule.
5. Groupware - This is typically thought of as Lotus Notes, but now many other smaller "ready-to-ware" solutions are available, like Collabra Share or Mesa Conference+.
6. Custom Browsers - If a company isn't using Notes or another groupware solution, they may have a custom browser created internally. Custom browsers usually access a database of information with some sort of interface to the data.
7. File servers - Many organizations have corporate servers to store and access files.
8. Internet/Intranet - Then of course, there's the Internet or Intranet, that's providing access to a worldwide library of information.
Outlook helps you manage, find and view all of the above information. Outlook juggles your scheduling, groupware, personal information (contacts, tasks), email and document -- all in ONE place and allows you to both create and view the information using the same consistent interface.
At Microsoft we've done a lot of research with customers and found that people really want better integration across their desktop. Microsoft Office provided this integration with version 4.2, integrating Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft Access to work together like one. With Microsoft Outlook(, we've taken this continued vision and reality of Microsoft Office, and extended it to the rest of your desktop so that you have only one place to go for all your information needs.
Exchange and Outlook Email Clients
Today, Microsoft has two email clients for the business user: Microsoft Exchange and now Microsoft Outlook(. Outlook will be clearly positioned as Microsoft's premier messaging and groupware client. Outlook will also be a safe and easy upgrade from Microsoft Exchange and Schedule+, so if you choose Microsoft Exchange or Schedule+, your investment is protected. We have worked hard to achieve smooth interoperability between Microsoft Mail 3.2/3.5, Schedule+ 1.0/7.0, Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.
We recommend evaluating and deploying Outlook in the following scenarios:
1. Outlook is a client for Microsoft Exchange Server, for Windows 95 and Windows NT only, so if you or your business is predominantly Win 32, Outlook is the recommended client. If you have pockets of Mac, Win 16, DOS, or Unix, we recommend that you use the Microsoft Exchange clients for these users, in conjunction with Outlook.
2. If email is a critical application for your organization, and you need advanced email features and more IntelliSense email features, we recommend Outlook.
3. If group scheduling is a critical application, and your next major deployment is Office 97, we recommend Outlook. If you're already migrating to Microsoft Exchange today, we recommend Schedule+ 95.
4. If you require integration with Office, we recommend Outlook.
5. If you require easy-to-use and custom groupware tools, Outlook is recommended.
We hope you enjoy your experience in Microsoft Outlook( --- the next generation of communication and organizational tools.
Areas to Focus On
General
* Track your work using the Journal. Turn on Journal options on the Tools / Options / Journal page.
* Set up and use Delegate Access to view and manage other Outlook user's calendars and tasks folders.
* Import contacts, appointments, and tasks from text files.
* Transfer and manage your remote mail using the remote mail wizard. Remote mail headers are stored directly in the inbox, so you can mark them for download directly from there.
* Set up and us offline folders for Outlook. You must be running with an Exchange server as your main store. Go to the Inbox, and then select File / Folder / Properties for Inbox. On the "Synchronization" page, check "This folder is available when offline or online." Do the same for the Contacts, Journal, Calendar, and Tasks folders, and try sychronizing from the Tools / Synchronize menu.
Outlook Forms
* Outlook forms are available for this release, but it must be noted that forms that are created with this release of Outlook will not work with future versions. The Tools / Design Form feature is known to have several problems, and it is recommended that you save your current work before using it and that you save your design work frequently while using it.
Customized Forms
* Customize a Post Note or Mail Note. Save forms into MAPI Forms Registries (personal, folder, and organization).Create new instances of forms from forms registry (using Compose menu or New Form command).Specify a form as a response only so it doesn't show up in the New Form dialogue. Protect forms (so unauthorized users cannot customize them)
Customized Pages on Forms
* Hide/Show pages. Have separate Read and Compose modes for pages. Use AutoLayout to drop controls onto the page and see "how good" of a job it does at laying them out for you
Controls on Forms
* Add controls from the Field Grabber. Add controls from the toolbox. Bind controls to properties (using the property sheet on a control). Specify possible values for list boxes and combo-boxes.
* Add Radio Buttons from the toolbox. Radio buttons need to be confined inside of a "frame control"(from toolbox). All radio buttons in a frame are bound to the same property. The property is set to the "value" property on the binding page of the control when the user clicks on a radio button.
* Specify an initialization formula for a control on the control property sheet. For custom actions, the formula should reference property values in the original item.
* Specify a validation formula for a control.
* Make a control "resize automatically", disabled, etc. Resize and move "grouped" controls.
Custom Actions
* Disable standard actions. Define new custom actions and custom actions that create mail and post notes. Set the reply styles for custom actions. Set copy fields like for custom actions. Verify that user-defined properties are copied in an appropriate manner.
* Set a prefix for custom actions. Set Response styles for custom actions. Set "Show Action on" for custom actions. Set a custom action that opens a hidden form (may need to first register the action's form as unhidden and then re-register as hidden after defining the action).
Getting Around in Outlook
Because Microsoft Outlook is a new application, we want to provide you with a brief explanation of the different parts of the product. We hope the information below will give you the facts you need to begin exploring Outlook on your own.
Outlook Bar
The Outlook Bar is your navigation headquarters in Outlook, housing special shortcuts that allow you to move around the product. The Outlook Bar is the thick black bar that runs vertically down the left side of your screen. With the Outlook Bar it is easy to switch to:
* The different Outlook applets (i.e. Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, etc.) located in the "Outlook Folders" group
* All of your e-mail subfolders, your Sent Mail folder, and your Outbox, located in the "Mail Folders" group
* The file system folders or network drives, Internet URL folders or any Exchange public folders located in the "Other Folders" group
The Outlook Bar comes pre-configured with all of the standard navigation choices; however you can easily customize this bar to create a personalized desktop organizer.
Inbox
The Inbox is the Outlook screen that you see when you first start Outlook. . For anyone that is used to working with e-mail, the Inbox should look somewhat familiar. You use the Inbox to receive, view and process all of your incoming and outgoing e-mail messages. You can also use your Inbox to accept meeting and task requests.
Calendar
The Outlook Calendar is the place to go to view your schedule or to create new appointments or meetings. The Calendar should be very familiar to people who are used to using Microsoft Schedule+. When used with Microsoft Exchange Server, the Calendar can also be used for group scheduling. In addition to appointments and meetings, you can also schedule an event such as a vacation, seminar, or holiday, and display it in a banner at the top of the date in the calendar. Events do not occupy blocks of time in the calendar unless you specify that the time be shown as busy. You can also use your Calendar to schedule time to work on tasks.
Tasks
The Task module in Outlook is where you go to manage your entire task list. Tasks can help you keep track of your business and personal to-do lists, and follow the progress of tasks you assign to other people. If you're using the Office97 versions of Microsoft Excel, Word, or PowerPoint, you can create tasks from those programs. By default, the module shows all tasks using a Simple List view, but this is easy to change to a more complex view showing more task properties using the View Selector (the drop down box) in the toolbar. to Again, for Schedule+ users, Task module in Outlook should be a very familiar place.
Contacts
Because phone calls, correspondence, and other forms of communication occupy a good portion of a user's time, Outlook includes robust contact management functionality that allow users to store extensive information about each of their personal contacts. The Outlook contacts also substitute for your e-mail personal address list so that you have only a single Address Book to turn to for postal and e-mail address information.
Notes
Outlook Notes are the perfect place to store all of the extraneous information that normally clutters the physical world around your desktop ╛ phone numbers, server paths, shopping lists, important dates, Internet addresses ╛ before you have a chance to move it to its final and storage place. You can view Notes individually like paper sticky notes or together in a table. Notes can also be color coded or assigned to categories for fast sorting.
Journal
Using the Journal and its associated timeline view, you can examine any information using a horizontal time grid that can be adjusted to day, week, and month modes similar to the Outlook calendar views.
Usually, finding information on a computer requires that you remember exactly where the information is stored on a disk, or that you provide some text or other detail included in the information. Now you can use the timeline in the Journal to locate information based on when you did past activities or work. You can use the Outlook Journal to record interactions with important contacts, to record individual items or documents that are significant to you, and to record activities of all types.
You can record interactions with important contacts by automatically recording items and documents that you send, receive, or create for those contacts. For example, you can have all e-mail messages automatically recorded in Journal for the contacts you select. You can record individual items or documents that already exist, or that can't be recorded automatically by manually adding them to Journal. Tasks and appointments cannot be recorded automatically. If you want to record tasks or appointments, add them manually. If a document or item already exists, add it manually. Any item or document that can be automatically recorded in Journal can also be recorded manually. You can also record any activity, even if it isn't a Microsoft Outlook item, by manually adding it to Journal. For example, you can manually record a conversation you had in the hallway, or a letter you sent to a business associate.
My Computer/My Documents
All of the functionality of the Windows95 Explorer is built right into Outlook, so you never have to leave to find or launch files. Outlook gives you fast access to the information you store, including files created and saved in other programs such as Microsoft Excel and Word. Once you find the information you need, you can view it in a variety of ways. Outlook can help you quickly integrate different types of information[.3]. Even documents you create in other programs can be tracked and shared with others from within Outlook.
Favorites
The WWW Address Book of Outlook is yet another feature available through the Outlook Bar. Using the Outlook Bar, you can quickly jump to the Favorites folder that houses all Internet Favorite URLs. These URLs (or favorites) are collected during your browsing sessions on the Web. From this folder, just double-click any icon to launch the web browser and go directly to the specified web page.
Public Folders
For users who find themselves frequently navigating to various Microsoft Exchange Server public folders, the Outlook Bar is an easy and convenient place to store shortcuts to different public folders. By using the Outlook Bar, you can easily jump directly to any public folder instead of having to always navigate the folder list hierarchy.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR REMOVING OUTLOOK
If you wish to return to using Microsoft Exchange, you must remove Outlook by running Setup and choosing "Remove All". You must then run the Regforms application, located in the \extra\regforms directory on the Office CD.
1. Run RegForms.EXE
2. Select "Microsoft Exchange client"
3. Press OK
Regforms will search your drive for MAPI Forms and re-register the Exchange forms. Note that you can also use this application to switch between using Exchange/Schedule+ and Outlook.
If the search fails to locate the forms files or the correct application automatically, then you can enter the correct path yourself. The default locations are:
Microsoft Exchange C:\Windows\Forms\ConfigsMicrosoft
Outlook C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Outlook\Forms
KNOWN PROBLEMS IN OUTLOOK AND WORKAROUNDS
For Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Exchange (which ships with NT 4.0 RC1) must be installed before Outlook can be installed.
Schedule+ users should make a local copy of their server schedule, so that it can be imported into Outlook and deleted from the server. Once the server schedule has been deleted by Outlook, it will be deleted without warning if Outlook subsequently detects that a server schedule has been recreated.
Special note for Rules Wizard Users: If you are a Rules Wizard user, you should export your rules using the older version of the Outlook Rules Wizard before upgrading. Once you have upgraded to the new version of Outlook, you can import your rules using the Rules Wizard. This does NOT affect Inbox Assistant users.
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Outlook, you should re-apply your current view from the View menu for each folder to update all view field information. This does not happen automatically in this release. In addition, for mail folders, you must remove and re-add the flag field for it to display properly.
Status Reports will not work properly for tasks created with previous versions of Outlook.
You must go to the Contact folder's property page, click on the Outlook Address Book tab, and check off "Show this folder as an e-mail address book" in order for your contacts to show up in the Outlook Address Book.
Custom pages are not retained on document items once they are mailed.
Dragging and dropping a file onto the folder list very quickly can cause a crash in Outlook.
The Outlook Object Model help file (VBAOUTL.HLP) is available in the CompuServe Office Beta forum.
An Excel spreadsheet pasted into a WordMail message (paste special - Microsoft Excel Worksheet) will not be visible in a non-WordMail message (i.e. When opened on a system with WordMail disabled.)
There are some current problems with opening forms. If you encounter an error upon opening a form, please follow these steps:
* Close Outlook
* Open Explorer
* Go to the "Forms" folder under you windows directory (e.g. c:\Windows\Forms)
* Delete the file frmcache.dat and all the folders except for the configs folder
* Restart Outlook
* Try to open the form again.
This is a preliminary release of the software and documentation. It may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release. This document is provided for informational purposes only and Microsoft Corporation makes no warranties, either express or implied, in this prerelease document and software. The entire risk of the use or the result of the use of this software and document remains with the user.
Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.
(c) 1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Microsoft Access, MS, MS-DOS, Multiplan, PivotTable, PowerPoint, and Windows are registered trademarks and ODBC, Outlook, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
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