Chapter 1. Getting Started with Outlook

IN THIS CHAPTER

  • Outlook overview

  • Messaging

  • Managing contacts

  • Scheduling

  • Organizing information

  • Searching

  • Reading news and other information

Outlook is one of the most widely used programs in the world. The latest version, called either Outlook 12 or Outlook 2007 (but simply Outlook from here on) takes a great program and makes it even better. What is it about Outlook that makes it the one indispensable program on many people's computers?

The way I look at it, Outlook is the digital version of a Swiss Army knife. It doesn't do just one or two things, it does a whole bunch of things—and equally important, it does them well. You may not need all of Outlook's capabilities, but it's a pretty sure bet that you need some of them.

How many people do you know who don't use email? That's one of Outlook's abilities. How about keeping track of contact information for friends, family, and business associates? That's another. Do you need to schedule meetings, appointments, and social engagements? Outlook can help. This is what makes Outlook so popular—it takes a bunch of commonly needed capabilities and rolls them together into a single well-designed and easy-to-use program.

The key concept here is productivity. Outlook is carefully designed to integrate information and tasks in a way that will save you time, errors, and headaches.

This chapter gets you started with Outlook by taking you on a quick tour of all the program features. I think this is the first step in ...

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