More than just a pretty face
Looking at some parts of Office 2003, you might get the impression that Microsoft is out of new ideas. That's certainly not the case for Outlook, though. There are a ton of new features in Outlook 2003, enough that even experienced Outlook users are likely to be surprised at some of the things they find. For starters, there's no denying that Outlook 2003 does have a new pretty face. Figure A shows the new default arrangement, with the improved Outlook bar to the left, the more informative list of messages in the centre, and the "paper" preview pane to the right. These improvements may not come as any great surprise to most of you because Microsoft has been using similar screen shots in talks since it first started leaking information about Outlook 2003. Figure A
Organisation is a snap
One of the strengths of the new Outlook is that it allows users to easily find and organise mail. Search folders are one tool that helps in this regard. You can think of a search folder as a persistent search. Once you select your search criteria (which might be as simple as "unread messages" or as complex as "messages from Joe with the word budget in the body"), Outlook will automatically keep the search folder up to date as new mail arrives. Search folders may change the way you work very quickly. If you use rules to place new mail in a variety of folders, for example, you'll find that the Unread Mail search folder gives you an easy way to see what's arrived without your having to click around your entire folder tree. Another improvement in organisation is better grouping. It's easy to tell which messages in your Inbox date from today, yesterday, a week ago, or further in the past. Of course, if old mail makes you feel guilty, you might want to turn off this feature.
