Outlook 2010 Features & Screenshots

here is a full screen shot of the new Outlook 2010 interface.  I suppose I must state that this is only a technical preview and this may still change a lot before the final version is released.

 

The Ribbon

As you can see from the screenshot above, the biggest change to the Outlook interface is the introduction of the infamous Ribbon, with four main tabs. Lets look at these tabs in a bit more details and see what they bring us;

Home - This contains many of the standard buttons you are used to seeing at the top of an outlook window, such as “New Mail”, “Reply”, “Forward” and a plethora of options relating to email rules and categorising your items.

Send / Receive – As you would expect, this tab contains……the send and receive button!   Along with some of the more commonly used items, such as buttons for marking items for download or triggering the download of headers only.

Folder – From here you can control your mail archiving, mark items as read, create and modify your folders and run your mail rules.

View – This is one of my most used tabs.  Here you can set different views for each of your folders.  The most notable introduction here is the “Conversation” view, which will attempt to group your mail into conversations.  This is not for everyone and certainly not for every folder (I switched it on in a folder to receive Facebook messages and it created one huge conversation as all the subjects were the same), but I like it in the right circumstance.

Contact Actions

One feature I really do like in Outlook 2010 is the new contact action popups.  If you hover over a name in the from or to fields on an email, you now get a popup giving you several actions you can perform on this person, such as adding them to your Outlook contacts, scheduling a meeting, viewing their stored contact information if they are already in your contacts, sending an instant message or even starting a telephone call.

Quick Steps

Quick Steps are a set of very useful buttons on the Home tab. They include ways of replying to a team of people or your manager, both of which are customised tasks to suit you.  There are a standard set of buttons here and you can also create custom quick steps to suit yourself. Very nice!

Quick Bar

Ok, here is something I didn’t even notice until a couple of days ago, the Quick Bar.  Until recently, every time I wanted to send and receive my email I have been switching to the Send / Receive tab and click the S & R button.  This was ok, but got a bit annoying having to switch tabs every time, as most of the time I use the Home tab for functions like “Reply” etc.  Then I noticed the Quick Bar.  This handy little addition allows for a constant set of buttons that are displayed either above of below the ribbon (your choice) and by default contains a send and receive button with more being added as you see fit.  This is a nice feature, but it is quite small, so that’s why I didn’t notice it for so long!!!

The “Office” Button

The “Office” button sits in the top left hand corner of every Office 2010 application. When clicked, this button allows access to all the features you would normally have seen under the standard menus (file, edit, tools, etc) in Outlook 2007.  You can see Microsoft have spent a long time designing this feature and it works well.  As you can see from the screen shot below, there is plenty of room for each task, much more space for explanations and it just ‘feels’ like a better way of doing things to me.

 

The Windows 7 Task Bar Context Menu

Ok, so you have probably seen this before, but I thought it was worth a mention anyway.  Outlook 2010 now gets it’s own context menu on the Task Bar in Windows 7, which gives a very nice shortcut to common tasks.

 

Verdict To Date

So far I have found the improvements made in this latest incarnation of Outlook to be very useful and have increased my productivity, which is always good, especially with an integral everyday task such as email management.

Upgrade From Outlook Express to Outlook 2010, to Outlook 2007, to Outlook 2003, or to Outlook 2002

How to import mail account settings

1. In Outlook, click the File menu, and then click Import and Export.
2. Click Import Internet Mail Account Settings, and then click Next.
3. Click Microsoft Outlook Express, and then click Next.
4. Make sure that the name that is displayed is the name that you want to use, and then click Next.
5. Make sure that the e-mail address is correct, and then click Next.
6. Make sure that the incoming and outgoing mail servers are correct, and then click Next.
7. Make sure that the account name is correct, type the password in the Password box, and then click Next.
   
   Note If you are using Microsoft Network (MSN) version 2.5 POP mail, the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box must be selected.
8. Click the method that you use to connect to the Internet, and then click Next.
9. Click Finish to import your mail account settings.

How to import Outlook Express messages, address book and rules

1. In Outlook, click the File menu, and then click Import and Export.
2. Click Import Internet Mail and Addresses, and then click Next.
3. Use one of the following methods according to your version of Outlook:
   • In Outlook 2007, click Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or Windows Mail.
   • In Outlook 2003, click Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x.
   • In Outlook 2002, click Outlook Express 4.x, 5.
4. Make sure that the Import Mail, Import Address Book, and Import Rules check boxes are selected, and then click Next.
   
   Note You cannot import rules into Outlook 2007 because the rules subset in Outlook 2007 has been extended, and it has more options than the earlier versions of Outlook have.
5. Select to import into either the Outlooks Contacts Folder or the Personal Address Book.
   
   Note In Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003, you can import only into the Outlook Contacts Folder.
6. Select how you want duplicates to be handled during import.
7. Click Finish.

How to set Outlook as the default e-mail client

Method 1

1. Open Outlook.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click the Other tab.
4. Click to select the Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts and Calendar check box.
5. Click OK.

Method 2

1. Exit Outlook.
2. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
3. Double-click the Internet Options icon, and then click the Programs tab.
4. In the E-mail list, click Microsoft Outlook, click Apply, and then click OK.

Outlook 2010

How to import mail account settings

1. In Outlook 2010, click the File Tab on the Ribbon, and then select Open on the Menu.
2. Click the Import tab. The Import and Export Wizard opens.

OR

1. In Outlook, click the File tab in the Ribbon, and then click Options in the Menu.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Export. The Import and Export Wizard opens.
3. Click Import Internet Mail Account Settings, and then click Next.
4. Click Microsoft Outlook Express, and then click Next.
5. Make sure that the name that is displayed is the name that you want to use, and then click Next.
6. Make sure that the e-mail address is correct, and then click Next.
7. Make sure that the incoming and outgoing mail servers are correct, and then click Next.
8. Make sure that the account name is correct, type the password in the Password box, and then click Next.
   
   Note If you are using Microsoft Network (MSN) version 2.5 POP mail, the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box must be selected.
9. Click the method that you use to connect to the Internet, and then click Next.
10. Click Finish to import your mail account settings.

How to import Outlook Express messages, address book and rules

1. In Outlook 2010, click the File Ttab in the Ribbon, and then select Open on the Menu.
2. Click the Import tab. The Import and Export Wizard opens.

OR

1. In Outlook, click the File tab on the Ribbon, and then click Options on the Menu.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Export. The Import and Export Wizard opens.
3. Click Import Internet Mail and Addresses, and then click Next.
4. Use one of the following methods according to your version of Outlook:
   
   • In Outlook 2010, click Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or Windows Mail.
5. Make sure that the Import Mail, Import Address Book, and Import Rules check boxes are selected, and then click Next.
   
   Note You cannot import rules into Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 because the rules subset in Outlook 2007 and 2010 has been extended, and it has more options than the earlier versions of Outlook have.
6. Select to import into either the Outlooks Contacts Folder or the Personal Address Book.
   
   Note In Outlook 2010, in Outlook 2007, and in Outlook 2003, you can import only into the Outlook Contacts Folder.  
7. Select how you want duplicates to be handled during import.
8. Click Finish.

How to set Outlook as the default e-mail client

1. Open Outlook 2010.
2. Click the File tab on the Ribbon, and then click the Options tab on the Menu.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Under Start up options, click to select the Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts and Calendar check box.
5. Click OK.