What's New in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003?

You'll notice some changes as soon as you start Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. For example, the toolbars and menus have a new look. The new and improved features in this version of Outlook go beyond just changes in appearance. Some changes won't be apparent to you until you start using the program.

The following table lists some of the many new and improved features in Outlook 2003, and the lessons and topics in this course that describe those features.

New or Improved Feature	What Does this Feature Help You Do?	Lesson	Topic
Reading Pane	The new Reading Pane is optimized for reading e-mail messages. When you use the new multi-line layout, the Reading Pane displays nearly twice as much information on the screen as the Preview Pane did. You can also respond to meeting requests and use voting buttons without having to open messages first.	Working with Outlook	Viewing and Printing Messages
Simplifications to using Word as your e-mail editor	When you use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor, the new E-Mail toolbar appears instead of the Formatting and Standard toolbars, which saves screen space by arranging commonly used commands from both these toolbars, such as Print and Bold, in one place.	Working with Outlook	Creating New Messages
Desktop Alerts	When a new message arrives, the new 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.	Working with Outlook	Responding to Messages
Live Attachments	When you attach a Microsoft Office document to an e-mail message, you can share it as a Live Attachment, which means it is stored on a Document Workspace Web site by using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. Sharing documents helps reduce version control issues and the inefficiencies of passing it back and forth for editing.	Working with Outlook	Attaching Files to Messages
Arrangements	An arrangement is a predefined pairing of a grouping and a sort. There are 13 new arrangements that can help you quickly change the way your messages appear.	Managing E-Mail Messages	Customizing How You View Messages
Arrange by Conversation	You can now organize messages in an e-mail conversation together, which makes it easier to find and respond to conversations, or threads.	Managing E-Mail Messages	Customizing How You View Messages
Unique signature per account	You can now use a different default e-mail signature for each e-mail account.	Managing E-Mail Messages	Adding Signatures to Messages
Quick Flags	Quick Flags are new flag icons that appear next to all e-mail messages, which you can click to quickly flag the message for follow-up. You can view all Quick Flagged messages together in the new For Follow Up Search Folder.	Managing E-Mail Messages	Flagging Messages for Follow-Up
Junk E-Mail Filter	The new Junk E-mail Filter evaluates whether a message should be treated as junk e-mail based on the time it was sent and the content and structure of the message. You can also use the Safe Senders List and Blocked Senders List to filter additional messages to be treated as junk mail.	Finding and Organizing E-Mail Messages	Filtering Messages
Search Folders	Search Folders are customized views of all e-mail items that match specific search criteria. Each Search Folder is like a saved search that is kept up to date. A Search Folder always monitors all of your folders for any item that matches that Search Folder's search criteria.	Finding and Organizing E-Mail Messages	Using Search Folders
Easier ways to create and organize rules	In addition to creating your own rules, now you can use several ready-made rules designed to help you manage incoming messages and stay informed. The redesigned interface provides a summary of your rules. In addition, you can now apply rules to incoming meeting requests and meeting updates as well as e-mail messages.	Finding and Organizing E-Mail Messages	Managing Messages through Rules
Calendar view	The Calendar view has been streamlined, and you can now view multiple calendars at once. In this view, the TaskPad is hidden, and the Date Navigator appears in the Navigation Pane. A new indicator makes it easy to quickly see the current day and time.	Managing Your Calendar	Looking at Calendars in Different Ways
Contact Picture	You can now add pictures to your contacts, so you can associate a face with a name and other information about each contact.	Creating and Organizing a List of Contacts	Creating and Updating Contact Information