In the 2007 edition,  in comparison to other Office features, Outlook lucked out of receiving the facelift it deserved. The 2010 of Office Outlook however boasts all the trimmings, as well as some additional features. Practically and organised chaos are definitely the driving words behind the coming release, however, as with all promises, a lot of the additions are a matter of taste.

Changes to Email

Microsoft have had a good crack at timesaving and alleviating packed inboxes with, as far as can be seen from the current Beta version, mixed results. One of the big timesaving elements is definitely the “Ignore Conversation” feature, allowing users to avoid being inundated by office email “forward and reply all” banter, sending these straight to the Deleted Items folder.

On the other side of the coin, “Conversation View” allows its users to keep their finger on the pulse, grouping emails together in a dropdown menu, akin to its Gmail counterpart. Sounds good, but is a nightmare waiting to happen! Outlook identifies and groups emails according to subject line, which in practise means a whole bunch of emails from as far back as your inbox goes and which share a similar subject line content, but are completely irrelevant to each other from content are all piled together…lovely! Better yet, can you imagine what happens if you have ever forgotten to add a subject line? Yes, it does do what you’re thinking! This can however be combatted using the “Quick Steps” wizard macros, which let you set some limitations and actions to avoid this, as well as setting frequently used tasks, such as forwarding mail automatically to your boss or auto-delete on replying to an email. Other added extras in email include, warning messages when responding to an email repeatedly, sending emails to recipients who have set their outlook to “out of office”, as well as a “People Pane” at the bottom of the message, facilitating simplified contact selection and easier tracking of all documents and attachments sent between you and these correspondents.

The messages themselves allow for a far “tastier” look and feel, with the addition of the Office ribbon for making messages more “business like” from appearance, such as adding pictures, SmartArt graphics, Excel tables and graphs, colour correction, as well as simplified screenshots, using the new integrated screenshot feature.

Clearer Calender

The calender section hasn’t received as much of an overhaul as Email, but the bits and pieces that have been added make a big difference to practicality and gaining a general overview of whats going on in your schedule. For example, when making meeting requests with multiple participants, Outlook now opens a small preview window, enabling the user see where potential clashes might be and find the best slot for everyone…. or at least, almost everyone. On accepting or declining the user also gets to choose whether to add a personalised response or not, instead of the boring dialogue box that appeared in previous versions. The ScheduleView also allows users to plot meetings alongside all or some members of your family/team etc in one clear view, as well as plan all-day events directly from the To-Do bar.

Contacts & Tasks – If it aint broke, don’t fix it!

There’s little to report back about new/edited features in the Contacts and Tasks area, apart from addition of Suggested Contacts, which does exactly what it implies based on emails sent/received. Outlook responds by creating a new contact card, with the available details automatically entered into the respective fields – perhaps a big plus for people working in Sales or CRM.

All in all, Outlook is looking far more like something out of the 21st Century, let’s hope with a few more nips and tucks before the transition from Beta to being fit for the highstreets the performance will also be up to scratch.

As always, don’t forget to have a look at the free Office 2010 Beta download.