Microsoft Outlook 2003 provides an integrated solution for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks, notes, contacts, and other information. Outlook 2003 delivers innovations you can use to manage your communications, organize your work, and work better with others - all from one place.Compatible operating systems:Microsoft Windows 2000 with SP3Microsoft Windows XP
1 Outlook is good but it is not for everybody!
Outlook is a very powerful program that can do a lot of stuff but most users do not use more than 10% of Outlooks functionality. If you are one of these users I suggest not getting Outlook but look at some alternatives. For instance try Mozilla's Thunderbird email program. It is a very good email program with a lot of functionality and great spam protection. The best part about an alternative email program like Thunderbird is that it's free! Since Thunderbird is open source software anyone who wants to help work on it can. Thunderbird is worked on by millions of programmers around the world who want to use a better email program. It's user friendly and easy to install. Find it by doing a Web search for Mozilla Thunderbird.
2 Still Looking For A Better Mouse Trap!
I have always given Outlook a second chance every time Microsoft comes out with a new version and some reason or another I end up switching back to something else.
I really like the concepts of having an "all-in-one" package for email, contacts, appointments, etc; But Microsoft needs to start paying more attention to detail on email functionality.
After using Outlook 2003 for about a year now, here are some annoyances that are driving me away from this product.
1.) Cannot add my own email filters and filter rules. This feature should be a given and my biggest complaint. Why do I need to rely on Microsoft to update Junk Email filters for me? Other email clients (Such as Netscape) allow me to add a filter for certain key words and an action such as "send to trash" if it encounters those key words.
2.) Junk Email features are a joke. Again, anchored on my 1st complaint, if junk email arrives in my inbox, I have to add the sender to the block senders list. This is fine if the sender always uses the same return address, but as you know with spammers, this is never the case. Also, Outlook waits to inform me that the email is junk AFTER I've opened the email.
3.) Too much security, and no control. Is there such thing as too much security? I believe there is if I can't control what I want enabled and disabled without a bunch of registry hacks.
Instead of Microsoft making the decision for me of what I can view or cannot view as an attachment, I would prefer to make that decision for myself.
4.) Favorite Email Folders is a stupid and useless feature and you can't get rid it. This window is just useless clutter, but yet again, we have no control of what's displayed in the outlook window. Enough said.
5.) Forwarded messages arrive as attachments, no way to change this. Another big complaint of mine. If a message was forwarded 3,4 or more times, I have keep drilling down through the attachments for each time the message was forwarded just to get to the original message. Ultimately you end up with x number of useless windows open cluttering up your taskbar and x number of windows I have to close once I'm done reading the original message. If a message was forwarded 4 times before it got to me, that's 4 times I have to double click an attachment and 4 extra windows open. It would be nice to have the option to have all forwarded messages contained within the same message body instead as an attachment.
3 Not for people on dial-up
I think that this version of Outlook would be perfect if I weren't on dial-up: Outlook seems to be incapable of doing anything relating to your HTTP or IMAP email folders without checking the server, to the point that you can't even access them offline. The fact that Outlook has to check the server almost evrey time you do anything to your email can really be grating on dial-up. Maybe there's a way to stop the constant reference to the server, but I haven't found it.
It also has an annoying habit of locally replacing one of my two Hotmail accounts with the other, necessitating that I remove and recreate the "corrupt" account.
Seeing as how I don't use many of Outlook's other bells and whistles, I can't comment on the broader program, but apart from that signficant headache, it works fairly well.
4 Need to fix PCS
Generally good, but two bugs remain from before:
1) Outlook PCS, which offers the only hope of exchanging with a PDA contact date organized into subfolders, is so buggy as to be unusable. A little effort by MS could make it great.
2) Appointments still get totally screwed up if you change time zones on the computer. Have to work around by pretending that you're in your home time zone when you travel, but just change the clock time.
5 Works Great
New interface and features are nice. I use OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office, so a can't comment on the Microsoft Office integration.
Didn't notice any "AdWare" as stated by another reviewer.
I upgraded from Outlook 2000 and it went flawlessly. Found all my Rules, customized folders and Accounts without any setup.
Until the Open Source community provides an alternative on a Microsoft platform, I'll continue to use Microsoft Outlook. For $90.00, you can't beat it.
Thanks for a great product Microsoft.
6 Big improvement, new folder features are great
I use Outlook for managing tasks, contacts, mail and schedules. The new 2003 version is a vast improvement, at least in look and feel. The folder management is revised to split the window on the left to "favorite folders" and "all folders." Folders are a great way to organize and store emails, so this is a welcome change.
Then, the mail is organized by "today", "yesterday", and then the days of the week and back weeks. This helps to organize and trim out the inbox, which can get cluttered. For this attractive new feature alone, it's worth upgrading.
The look of the user interface is consistent with Windows XP, with the snazzy shaded bars. Nice to work with. Other improvements --the calendar also has been expanded, and tasks and contacts have new features, too. For example, the mail reading pane is larger, less scrolling required (yay!) and you can organize messages by subject thread to delete an entire series. Pretty cool.
If you are a dedicated Outlook user, the upgrade is well worth it, in my opinion.
7 Wow!
This is by far the best Outlook version Microsoft has ever released. Yes it is true the integration is not so good if you only have Office 2000 (Word, Excel, etc...) however the product is incredibly flexible. I use it for personal use, however my fiancˇ runs her own online business and we get TONS of emails from clients... a task which was extremely challenging to keep up with prior to this new version. You can simply manage your emails in a very neat and orderly fashion. Never mind the selection of setting up Hotmail accounts! Outlook allowed us to manage our personal, business, and Hotmail accounts with out the need of multiple profiles. Another advantage is the improvement of managing your follow-up emails. The application creates a Follow-up folder where all of your follow up emails are easily accessible. If you are running Windows XP you can make Outlook look really nice for cosmetic purposes and really enjoy the new look. Hope this review helps you with your buying decision. :)
8 travail hors connexion
Pourquoi il arrive que des pages tapes hors connexion ne partent quand on conecte ?
9 Not Disappointed
I read that Outlook 2003 is the only office application worth upgrading from Office XP, and I wanted the additional features, such as spam filter so I decided to buy it. I'm not disappointed with the software especially with the easy on the eyes interface.
The upgrade from Outlook 2002 was seamless. Even my RSS News Feed Reader, NewsGator, integrated seamlessly with the new 2003 version without having to do anything.
The one bad thing about having a news feed reader is that when I go to unread messages, I no longer get my unread messages, because the first time I went there I had over 65536 messages that were old news and it took about an half an hour to count up all of the messages. I was not able to mark all of these messages as read (right click, "mark all read"), and even after I marked each folder as read manually, my unread mail folder is still stuck, so I removed it from my favorites list.
I like the spam filters, but there is no way to mark a spam message as being read and just leave it in the spam folder. You have to delete the message before the message count goes down.
About certain file extensions being blocked. If you really need to send a certain file extension that is blocked, you can rename the file to use another extension. For example rename program.exe to program.exeREMOVE. You may have to ask some people to rename their files before sending them, but it's better than getting a virus that is newly out in the wild because you thought it was trustable.
Also, I didn't see any ads in the program, so I'm not sure why someone would say it's adware.
The lack of integration with Word 2002 is not a problem since when word starts up as the email editor in Outlook 2002, it takes too long anyhow. I prefer the standard editor and just tell it to check spelling before sending instead of getting spelling tips while I type. You can still format a document using fonts and bold/italics with the standard editor. I never found any extra utility in having Word as the editor.
2003 version has a much better rules wizard. Right click on an email and select "create rule", and you get a cleaned up version of 2002's email rules interface that is easier to use.
The one annoying thing about Outlook 2003 is that whenever a message comes in, it appears above the icon tray on the task bar, and whenever it prepares a view and takes too long, a pop up dialog ala windows update says "Outlook is Preparing the Requested View". Since I don't like the cartoon dialog boxes popping up from my tray constantly I find this to be extra annoying.
Is it worth the price? Probably not, compared to other products, but on the other hand, it is better than Outlook 2002 and probably worth upgrading.
10 Crippleware, Adware, all at no additional charge
Outlook 2003 is certainly prettier than past versions, but I find the interface cluttered and harder to use. For example, in Outlook 2000 you could enter a Contact's nickname in the 'To' line, but this doesn't work with this 'upgrade'. Also annoying is the Microsoft Online billboard that appears to the right of the screen, masquerading as a help bar. It does include help functionality, but it also includes 'push' topics that tout Microsoft's other products.
My biggest gripe is that Outlook 2003 added a new nanny feature that prevent users from receiving email attachments with dozens of extensions, including Access and Foxpro database files. If you're using Outlook in standalone mode, you can't override this setting. You can't save the file. You can't forward it. You're just out of luck. Also, if another user tries to email you a link to a website (using the 'send as link' function in IE), Outlook blocks the resulting .url file.
Of course there are clunky workarounds for all these deficiencies, assuming you can cajole the sender into putting up with the hassle of jumping through hoops made necessary by your new mail client. Security is important, but crippling your software rather than designing it correctly in the first place sounds more like a shareware workaround than the latest product of a $270 billion company.
I got Office 2003 on my new PC, but if I could, I would go back to Outlook 2000 in a heartbeat. If you're thinking of upgrading, don't!
11 Not goof for multiple e-mail accounts
I do like the layout and the fact that it will give you a short pop-up in the corner telling you when you get e-mail and who it is from (no matter what program you are running on top) is a great feature, but I can't get it to run multiple e-mail accounts simultaniously.
With Outlook 97 and 2000, we could set up our exchange server and internet mail accounts to run together, but with 2003 you have to create two different profiles, one for each e-mail account. In 97 and 2000, you had to set the internet mail account as the default account and then it would send/receive those first and then your exchange account. In 2003, if you do that, your exchange account will not send/receive. However, if you set the exchange account as default, the exchange account will work, but your internet will not. You can receive them and even reply to them, but if you try to create a new outside e-mail, it will always return undeliverable. What is odd about this is that you can receive outside e-mails and even respond to them!
Microsoft has no solution to this problem yet. My advice is that if you use both exchange and internet e-mail simultaniously, then hold off on this until they resolve the issue.
12 Outlook 2003
I use Outlook a lot and I have to admit that the new interface is a great step forward. We run an Exchange server here and the functionality is quite seamless. If you're a crusty Outlook user, you may not like some of the changes that the folks from Redmond made, but overall, I think it is a better tool than its predecessor and makes more information simultaneously available.
13 Worth the cost of the upgrade? Buyer beware.
I like the new layout of the panes in the Outlook 2003 window but is it worth the price of the upgrade? Probably not.
I have run into a few problems since I first rated this product.
I read a couple reviews of the Office 2003 upgrade and found that others felt the Outlook 2003 upgrade is the only part of the new Office suite that is worth the cost and hassle to upgrade. I decide to take their advice (and save $) and only upgrade OL.
Two problems have arisen since then.
1. The Office Shortcut bar is no longer a part of the Office suite. This is a great disappointment to me because this is one of the great efficiency tools that Windows has to offer. Luckily, Office XP is still installed as Word/Excel/PowerPoint so I still have the bar but the buttons which applied to OL 2003 are no longer available. If you are dependent on this feature as I have become, don't upgrade the full suite or it will disappear.
2. Because of the conflicting versions of the Office suite that I am using, there isn't full functionality between the programs anymore. For example, I can no longer send the body of a Word/Excel document as the body of an email by simply clicking the "E-mail" on the toolbar in the application. This is more trivial than the first issue.
14 The best upgrade in Office 2003
Usually when a new Office comes out from Microsoft, the biggest visual and interface changes are with Outlook. The 2003 edition is no exception with the largest interface changes to date. Don't be too surprised if offices continue to choose Office 97 or 2000 while runnng Outlook 2003.
I really like the changes. The ability to make it so that it doesn't appear on your Windows taskbar when minimized is my favorite. This leaves room for other applications and then Outlook is easily accessed from the task manager.
I also like the new look and interface. It is more efficient and I like being able to read more of an Email when I select it. I also like how it hides graphics unless you want to view them. This greatly speeds up my Email reading time. And the new junk mail filter is wonderful. Again, it speeds up my Email reading time again. My biggest gripe is that when a new Email comes in it creates a window in the task manager (that's not my gripe, I like that), but when you read the message, you need to change Email messages in order for the envelope to go away. I keep opening up Email to see new messages only to find that I'm still viewing the last new one that came in. Maybe in the future service pack that I know will come out.
The ability to view unread messages also speeds up Email reading time. And having a "favorite folders" view pane is very nice, again making my day more efficient.
Another great benefit is to allow others to know you are busy without requiring an Exchange server. YAY!!!
If you don't upgrade your entire Office product to Office 2003, at least upgrade the Outlook portion of it. Outlook was originally designed to make your day more efficient, and they have finally come out with a version that does just that. Highly recommended, especially for those who use Outlook a lot!
15 Easy To Use
This is the only component of the new Office suite that I upgraded (from XP), per the recommendation of many reviews. The new Outlook does a good job of filtering SPAM and sorting mail in various ways. Overall helpful and worth the expense.
16 Be careful before you buy this.
I like the new interface, but Outlook 2003 will not use Word as the text editor unless you also install Word 2003. Once you uninstall Outlook 2003 you have to reinstall your entire Office program to get your old Outlook back. WHY DON'T THEY WARN YOU ABOUT THIS IN ADVANCE? But Microsoft will refund your purchase price if you call 800-360-7561.
17 Outlook 2003
Limited integration of standalone Outlook 2003 with word or office 2000.
*The following from Microsoft Outlook 2003 deployment site:
"If users upgrade to Outlook 2003 before upgrading to other Office applications, they will not be able to use Microsoft WordMail as their e-mail editor. The version of Microsoft Word must match the version of Outlook in order for WordMail to be available as the editor in Outlook."
18 A bit of a disappointment
I upgraded from Outlook 2000, mainly because of the claimed improvement in spam filtering.
I am sorry to say that I did not like the new interface at all. It's overwhelming and crowded. The spam filter options are only slightly different from the previous version. And when I send out an e-mail, Norton Anti-virus takes five times longer to start scanning the message, sometimes resulting in a failed outgoing message.
So I went back to Outlook 2000, and of course I'm now stuck with 2003 and can't return it. Maybe I'll try it some other day.
19 Nice improvement over 2002, more usefull features
While I was initially not going to upgrade, I'm really happy that I did. Installation went great, and I beleive it did due to my having had all the latest upgrades and additions to WinXP on board my machine. (...) Anyway the new mail management features are useful, and the new look and layout of the interface is more intuative. A good upgrade all in all, and I recommend it to others.
20 THE ANTI-SPAM FILTERS ARE WORTH IT
The spam filters that come with Outlook are neat, they are doing (as yet) an amazing job of filtering out junk and not flagging legit mail by accident. MS has obviously had a bit of inspiration to go with, products/plug-ins like Spam Inspector (Giant Company) or Mailshell have been around for a while now.
However, the new Business Contact Manager is a mess, and the supposed new friendly "look and feel" lasted me no more than 2 days. Had to switch back to what my email typically looks like. Not because I am averse to change, but it is just so much more efficient. If I wanted needless good looks, I'd go with the smilie-ridden "Incredimail."
My 20 yen: if you already use Outlook, just buy the upgrade and save yourself the rest.
21 This is a terrible product
I ordered Outlook 2003 with great confidence. However, I was unable to load it on my Dell running Windows 2000 with 256 MB of ram, even after reinstalling it several times. Worse, when I removed it and tried to reinstall Outlook 2002 (from the Office XP suite), that would no longer work. After spending several hours with technical support over several days and being bumped up to a supervisor, I was finally able to revert to my older Outlook. The supervisor told me that other staff had told him that Outlook 2003 had problems as a stand-alone product because it shares code with Word 2003. Now they tell us..... I'm sure it's a great product if it can be made to work, but I was unable to make it work.
22 E-mail is once again an enjoyable EXPERIENCE!
Outlook, is so revamped, this alone is a worthy upgrade. Three panes in Outlook 2003 make e-mail an enjoyable experience. The Mail Pane holds all of the necessary tools found in prior versions of Outlook such as the Outlook Bar, and the different folders such as inbox, calendar, etc. The second pane gives an expanded view of the different items listed in the Mail Pane, like your incoming mail, contacts and calendar, which makes reading these information resources easier on the eye and productive by providing a better view. Reading your e-mail in the third pane (Preview Pane), the user views the message in portrait layout, more content is seen compared to prior versions. Its even better to view e-mails with "Clear Type" turned on for Windows XP users. Other features such as improved Virus and Spam protection makes Outlook 2003 a great upgrade. Outlook is not placed on the desktop by default, it can also be minimized to the system tray in Windows, for users connected to an Exchange Server, this displays all the network settings available.
23 Highly recommended.
I got Outlook '03 from a preview copy of Small Business Server 2003 and I can say it is worth the upgrade from ANY previous version (I am using Outlook XP now.)
It will be, however, the only office 2003 product I will upgrade from the time being.
Just the Anti-Spam feature (one of the best I haved used) is worth its price tag. I currently use "I hate Spam" (it sucks!) and Norton Anti-Spam (better but not quite there yet) but Microsoft's is more atune and I would say it works at a 90% efectiveness (it is very good indeed.)
Also, Microsoft finally got it that it is easy for everyday work to see your messages in readable date formats like "Yesterday" or "Last week." I mean, let us be honest, how many of us remember what day it is or how long you have left that mail from your accountant in the inbox folder?
Fonts are bigger in the message list and the preview pane has been moved to right hand side (from below) so now you have a complete view of the Folder List, Message List and preview pane. Nicely done.
Supposedly most of your Message rules (e.j. move all Jokes from Ed to the deleted folder) will now work on the server (not just on your machine) but I have not yet tried this one out. One thing that is just hands down the best thing Microsoft has produced this year is the new Outlook web access in their mail server 2003 software.
It will be really hard for you to distingish Outlook 2003 from this OWA. The difference between the new version and the previous one is like comparing windows 95 and Mac OSX. It also has much of the features of Oulook in the browser version as well, a highly missed feature in Exchange Server 2000's OWA. Do tear down your IT Manager's door until they get you this one. You owe it to yourself to try this one out (there is an public online trial version of OWA on microsoft's site by the way: exchangetrial.com).
That's it, now press one-click and enjoy.
