Microsoft Outlook is a
personal information managerA personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study...
from
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the
Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
suite. The current version is Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 for Windows and Microsoft Office Outlook 2011 for Mac.
Although often used mainly as an
emailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
application, it also includes a
calendarCalendaring software is software that minimally provides users with an electronic version of a calendar. Additionally, the software may provide an appointment book, address book, and/or contact list. These tools are an extension of many of the features provided by time management software such as...
, task manager, contact manager, note taking, a
journalIn computer storage, a journal is a chronological record of data processing operations that may be used to construct or reinstate an historical or alternative version of a computer system or computer file....
and web browsing.
It can be used as a stand-alone application, or can work with
Microsoft Exchange ServerMicrosoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
and Microsoft SharePoint Server for multiple users in an organization, such as shared mailboxes and calendars, Exchange public folders, SharePoint lists and meeting schedules. There are third-party add-on applications that integrate Outlook with devices such as
BlackBerryBlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
mobile phones and with other software like Office &
SkypeSkype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
internet communication. Developers can also create their own custom software that works with Outlook and Office components using
Microsoft Visual StudioMicrosoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all...
. In addition,
Windows MobileWindows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...
devices can synchronize almost all Outlook data to Outlook Mobile.
Versions
Microsoft Outlook has replaced Microsoft's previous scheduling and mail program,
Schedule+Microsoft Schedule Plus was a time management software product developed by Microsoft, but was discontinued as part of Microsoft Office when most of its functionality was incorporated into Outlook 97...
and
Exchange ClientMicrosoft Exchange Client was a multi-purpose messaging product useful for managing e-mail. It was the native and bundled client for Microsoft Exchange Server up to version 5.0, later superseded by Microsoft Outlook....
.
Versions of Microsoft Outlook include:
| Name | Version Number | Release Date | Notes |
| Outlook for MS-DOS |
- |
- |
Bundled with Exchange Server 5.5 Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
|
| Outlook for Windows 3.1x |
- |
- |
Bundled with Exchange Server 5.5 |
| Outlook for Macintosh |
- |
- |
Bundled with Exchange Server 5.5 |
| Outlook 97 |
8.0 |
January 16, 1997 |
Included in Office 97 and also bundled with Exchange Server 5.5. |
| Outlook 98 |
8.5 |
June 21, 1998 |
Freely distributed with books and magazines for coping with newest Internet standard such as HTML mail Outlook 98 setup was based on Active Setup Active Setup is the installation technology Microsoft used for downloading and installing Internet Explorer versions 4 to 6. It was designed to selectively download and install signed Internet Explorer components via the Internet. This significantly reduced the amount of data to download as also...
which also installed Internet Explorer 4Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".It was one of the main participants of the first...
. |
| Outlook 2000 |
9.0 |
June 27, 1999 |
Included in Office 2000 and also bundled with Exchange 2000 Server. |
| Outlook 2002 |
10 |
May 31, 2001 |
Included in Office XP. |
| Office Outlook 2003 |
11 |
November 20, 2003 |
Included in Office 2003 (incl. Standard Edition for Students and Teachers) and also bundled with Exchange Server 2003. |
| Office Outlook 2007 |
12 |
January 27, 2007 |
Included in Office 2007, except Office Home and Student edition. |
| Outlook 2010 |
14 |
July 15, 2010 |
Included in Office 2010 Home and Business, Standard, Professional, and Professional Plus. |
| Outlook 2011 for Mac |
14 |
October 26, 2010 |
Included in Office for Mac 2011 Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is the most recent version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Mac OS X. It is the successor to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and is comparable to Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows....
Home and Business |
Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 of two configurations:
- Internet Mail Only or IMO mode: A lighter application mode with specific emphasis on POP3 accounts and IMAP accounts and including a lightweight Fax application.
- Corporate Workgroup or CW mode: A full MAPI client with specific emphasis on Microsoft Exchange accounts.
Outlook 2007
Outlook 2007 was available in retail stores at the end of January 2007. Features that debuted in Outlook 2007 include:
- To-Do bar added to the shell UI that shows a snapshot of the user's upcoming appointments and active tasks for better time and project management, and provides navigation entry points into calendar (e.g. selecting calendar dates in Date Navigator, clicking on day/date names in appointments area)
- Changed calendar views that display the tasks due below each day on the week view and supports overlaying multiple calendars
- Send your calendar information with calendar snapshots, which creates an HTML representation of your calendar so you can share this information with anyone
- Ability to publish calendars in Internet Calendar format to Microsoft Office Online or to a WebDAV
Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...
server
- Send text and picture messages from Outlook with Outlook Mobile Service to a mobile phone. Forward Outlook email messages, contacts, appointments, and tasks as text messages. Automatically send email messages, reminders, and your daily calendar as text messages to a mobile phone Outlook SMS Service Provider
- Integrated RSS aggregator
- 'Instant Search' through a context indexer based search engine with Windows Desktop Search
- Enhanced integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server
- New programmability features
- Preview Handler extension for previewing email attachment (including reading pane) without leaving Outlook
- Ability to add a picture or company logo to a contact or electronic business card
- Office Fluent user interface (though not for the main window)
- Color Categories give you an easy, visual way to distinguish any type of information from one another, so it's easy to organize your data and search your information
- Save as PDF or XPS
Open XML Paper Specification , is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format originally developed by Microsoft as XML Paper Specification that was later standardized by Ecma International as international standard ECMA-388...
- Discontinuation of Common User Access cut and paste
In human-computer interaction, cut and paste and copy and paste offer user-interface interaction techniques for transferring text, data, files or objects from a source to a destination. Most ubiquitously, users require the ability to cut and paste sections of plain text...
support
- Improved anti-phishing filters
- Office Outlook 2007 Email Postmark is designed to make it very time-consuming and technologically detrimental for users to send mass email like spam, yet they do not change the user experience of sending email.
- Information Rights Management
Information Rights Management is a term that applies to a technology which protects sensitive information from unauthorised access. It is sometimes referred to as or Enterprise Digital Rights Management...
(IRM) restricts and/or expires distribution of email using Windows Server 2003Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...
or later running Windows Rights Management ServicesWindows Rights Management Services is a form of Information Rights Management used on Microsoft Windows that uses encryption and a form of selective functionality denial for limiting access to documents such as corporate e-mail, Word documents, and web pages, and the operations...
(RMS)
- Managed policy compliance features integration with Exchange Server 2007
Outlook 2010
Features that debuted in Outlook 2010 include:
- Ribbon interface in all views
- Contact cards to show pop-up details of all message participants from GAL
The Global Address List also known as Microsoft Exchange Global Address Book is a directory service within the Microsoft Exchange email system. The GAL contains information for all email users, distribution groups, and Exchange resources...
or user contact records
- Grouping of conversations improved - includes messages from all folders, and optionally from separate accounts
- Improved To-Do bar, for example showing how many appointments are not shown when space is limited
- "People Pane" and Social Networking features
Macintosh
Microsoft also released several versions of Outlook for
Mac OSMac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
, though it was only for use with Exchange servers. It was not provided as a component of Microsoft Office for Mac, but instead made available to users from administrators or by download. The final version was Outlook for Mac 2001, which was fairly similar to Outlook 2000 and 2002 apart from being exclusively for Exchange users.
Microsoft EntourageMicrosoft Entourage was an e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. Microsoft first released Entourage in October 2000 as part of the Microsoft Office 2001 office suite; Office 98, the previous version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS included...
was introduced as an Outlook-like application for Mac OS in Office 2001, but it lacked Exchange connectivity. Partial support for Exchange server became available natively in
Mac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
with Entourage 2004 Service Pack 2. Entourage is not directly equivalent to Outlook in terms of design or operation; rather, it is a distinct application which has several overlapping features including Exchange client capabilities. Somewhat improved Exchange support was added in Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition.
Entourage was replaced by Outlook for Mac 2011, which features greater compatibility and parity with Outlook for Windows than Entourage offered. It is the first native version of Outlook for Mac OS X.
Outlook 2011 initially only supported Mac OS X's
Sync ServicesiSync is a software application published by Apple Inc. It runs only under Mac OS X and is used to synchronize contact and calendar data from Address Book and iCal with many non-Apple SyncML-enabled mobile phones via a Bluetooth or USB connection. Support for many devices is built-in, with newer...
for Contacts, not Events, Tasks or Notes. It also does not have a Project Manager equivalent to that in Entourage.. With Service Pack 1 (v 14.1.0), published on 12 April 2011, Outlook can now sync calendar, notes and tasks.
HTML rendering
Outlook 2007 was the first Outlook to switch from Internet Explorer HTML rendering to
Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
2007 HTML rendering. This means
HTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
and
CSSCascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
items not handled by Word are no longer supported. On the other hand, HTML messages composed in Word will look more or less as they appeared to the author.
This affects publishing newsletters and HTML/CSS reports, because they frequently use intricate HTML and/or CSS to form their layout. For example, forms can no longer be embedded in email.
Microsoft EntourageMicrosoft Entourage was an e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. Microsoft first released Entourage in October 2000 as part of the Microsoft Office 2001 office suite; Office 98, the previous version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS included...
is the only modern form of Outlook that properly supports
CSSCascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
and allows for seamless rendering between web browsers and email clients with little to no modifications to the original HTML or CSS code.
Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format
Outlook and Exchange Server internally handle messages, appointments and all other items as objects in a data model which is derived from the old proprietary
Microsoft MailMicrosoft Mail was the name given to several early Microsoft e-mail products.-Mac Networks:The first Microsoft Mail product was introduced in 1988 for AppleTalk Networks. It was based on InterMail, a product that Microsoft purchased and updated. An MS-DOS client was added for PCs on AppleTalk...
system, the
Rich Text FormatThe Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....
from
Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
and the complex
OLEObject Linking and Embedding is a technology developed by Microsoft that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects. For developers, it brought OLE Control eXtension , a way to develop and use custom user interface elements...
general data model. When these programs interface with other protocols such as the various Internet and X.400 protocols, they try to map this internal model onto those protocols in a way that can be reversed if the ultimate recipient is also running Outlook or Exchange.
This focus on the possibility that emails and other items will ultimately be converted back to Microsoft Mail format is so extreme that if Outlook/Exchange cannot figure out a way to encode the complete data in the standard format, it simply encodes the entire message/item in a proprietary binary format called Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) and sends this as an attached file (usually named "winmail.dat") to an otherwise incomplete rendering of the mail/item. If the recipient is Outlook/Exchange it can simply discard the incomplete outer message and use the encapsulated data directly, but if the recipient is any other program, the message received will be incomplete because the data in the TNEF attachment will be of little use without the Microsoft software for which it was created. As a workaround, numerous tools for (partially) decoding TNEF files exist.
Calendar compatibility
Outlook does not fully support data and syncing specifications for calendaring and contacts, such as
iCalendariCalendar is a computer file format which allows Internet users to send meeting requests and tasks to other Internet users, via email, or sharing files with an extension of .ics...
,
CalDAVCalendaring Extensions to WebDAV, or CalDAV, is an Internet standard allowing a client to access scheduling information on a remote server. It extends WebDAV specification and uses iCalendar format for the data. The protocol is defined by RFC 4791...
,
SyncMLSyncML is the former name for a platform-independent information synchronization standard. The project is currently referred to as Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization and Device Management...
and
vCard 3.0vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...
. Outlook 2007 claims to be fully iCalendar compliant; however, it does not support all core objects, such as VTODO, VJOURNAL. Also, Outlook supports vCard 2.1 and does not support multiple contacts in the vCard format as a single file. Outlook has also been criticized for having proprietary "Outlook extensions" to these Internet standards.
Security concerns
As part of its
Trustworthy ComputingThe term Trustworthy Computing has been applied to computing systems that are inherently secure, available, and reliable. The Committee on Information Systems Trustworthiness’ publication, Trust in Cyberspace, defines such a system as one which...
initiative, Microsoft took corrective steps to fix Outlook's reputation in Office Outlook 2003. Among the most publicized security features are that Office Outlook 2003 does not automatically load images in HTML emails or permit opening executable attachments by default, and includes a built-in Junk Mail filter. Service Pack 2 has augmented these features and adds an anti-
phishingPhishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
filter.
Outlook Add-ins
(Other possible and frequently used names: Microsoft Outlook add-ons, Microsoft Outlook plug-ins, Microsoft Outlook extensions, etc.)
Outlook Add-ins are small helping programs for the Microsoft Outlook application. The main purpose of the add-ins is to add new functional capabilities into Microsoft Outlook and automate some routine operations. Add-in also refers to programs where the main function is to work on Outlook files such as synchronisation or backup utilities.
From Outlook 97 on, Exchange Client Extensions are supported in Outlook. Outlook 2000 and later support specific
COMComponent Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
components called Outlook AddIns.
The exact supported features (such as
.NETThe .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
components) for later generations were extended with each release.
Outlook Express
Outlook Express was an email client,
newsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
client, and contact management software application that Microsoft bundled with
Internet Explorer 4Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".It was one of the main participants of the first...
,
5Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 was a graphical web browser released in March 1999 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but initially with versions available for Apple Macintosh, Sun Solaris, and HP-UX. It was one of the main participants of the first browser war...
and
6Internet Explorer 6 is the sixth major revision of Internet Explorer, a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems...
and all versions of Microsoft Windows from
Windows 98Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
to
Windows Server 2003Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...
. Other than the similar name there is no connection between the two products and they originated from different divisions of Microsoft. While both offer access to POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts, only Outlook offers client access (MAPI) to Microsoft Exchange. Outlook Express was succeeded by
Windows MailWindows Mail is an email and newsgroup client included in Windows Vista, that was superseded by Windows Live Mail. It is the successor to Outlook Express. Microsoft previewed Windows Mail on Channel 9 on October 10, 2005....
and subsequently by
Windows Live MailWindows Live Mail is a free of charge email client from Microsoft's Windows Live set of products. It is intended to be a successor for Outlook Express on Windows XP and Windows Mail on Windows Vista...
.
Importing from other email clients
Currently, Outlook supports importing messages from
Outlook ExpressOutlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...
and Lotus Notes. There are some ways to get the emails from
ThunderbirdMozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
; the first is to use a tool that can convert a Thunderbird folder to a format that can be imported from
Outlook ExpressOutlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...
. This method must be processed folder by folder. The other method is to use a couple of free tools that keep the original folder structure.
See also
- Comparison of email clients
- List of personal information managers
- Outlook Web Access
Outlook Web App , originally called Outlook Web Access and before that Exchange Web Connect , is a webmail service of Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 and later...
- Comparison of office suites
- Comparison of feed aggregators
The following is a comparison of notable RSS feed aggregators. Often e-mail programs and web browsers have the ability to display RSS feeds. They are listed here, too.Many BitTorrent clients support RSS feeds for broadcatching ....
- Kontact
KMail supports folders, filtering, viewing HTML mail, and international character sets. It can handle IMAP, IMAP IDLE, dIMAP, POP3, and local mailboxes for incoming mail. It can send mail via SMTP or sendmail...
- Evolution (software)
- iCal
iCal is a personal calendar application made by Apple Inc. that runs on the Mac OS X operating system. iCal was the first calendar application for Mac OS X to offer support for multiple calendars and the ability to publish/subscribe calendars to WebDAV server....
- Address Book
Address Book is an address book for Apple's Mac OS X. It features various syncing features and integrates into the rest of the OS.-Features:*Exports and imports cards to and from vCard 3.0 format....
- Windows Calendar
Windows Calendar is a calendar application that is included with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It natively supports the iCalendar file format, and has the ability to publish and subscribe to web-based calendars by using HTTP and WebDAV...
- Windows Contacts
Windows Contacts is a contact manager which is included in Windows Vista and Windows 7 which replaced and retained most of the functionality of Windows Address Book. Windows Mail integrates with it. Windows Contacts uses a new XML-based schema format where each contact appears as an...
- Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
- List of applications with iCalendar support
External links