Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an email management software developed by Microsoft, available as part of the Microsoft Office suite. It can be used as a stand-alone application to work day and night or with Microsoft Exchange Server to provide services to multiple users within an organization such as shared mailboxes, common calendars, etc.

History

Its origin dates back to 1988, when Microsoft Office (MSO) was first launched. It was initially a marketing term for selling a suite of apps that were previously sold separately. The main selling point was that buying the complete package was substantially more profitable than buying each application separately. The first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

A year later, in 1990, two new applications came out, one of them Outlook for MS, which caused shock and disgust among some users who expected it to have the Same functions as the previous version. To satisfy the public, Microsoft Outlook 95 was released later, which met most of the expectations, but was still limited. This continued until Microsoft revamped itself with Microsoft Office 2003, which incorporated a better-designed version of Outlook and with more utilities, such as email, calendar, tasks, contacts, notes, diary and web search.

The latest version is incorporated into the Microsoft Office 2021 suite.

Features

Microsoft Outlook is an email management application, as well as a personal agenda, that allows us to communicate with thousands of people around the world through electronic messages.

• Manage several email accounts from one place. You can easily manage email messages from various mailboxes. Sync several service email accounts such as Hotmail, Gmail or virtually any other provider with Outlook 2010.
• Easily manage large volumes of email and Customize common tasks in single-click commands.
• Searches to easily find what it requires.
• Create email messages that call attention. Through office tools.

News in its 2007 version

• Instant search, based on Windows Desktop Search, looking in attachments, appointments, calendars or tasks.
• Group of elements in categories
• Integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server.
• Improvements in calendar management, uses the standard i-Calendarto share or publish.
• RSS reader.

News in its 2010 version

Although it bears great similarities to its 2007 predecessor (as well as the rest of the Office 2010 office suite), the 2010 version includes:

• Graphical user interface with the option tape (Ribbon) in all the views. This is perhaps the most noticeable difference for users, and visually unifies Outlook with the rest of Microsoft applications.
• Notices of "Contact", shown in cards with details of all participants of recorded messages of your Global Address List (GAL) or by the user himself.
• Improved conversations: includes messages from all folders and optionally from a separate account.
• Improves bar "Treas pending". This option, for example, shows how many quotations are not displayed when space is limited.
• Option "The People of the Panel" and presentation of social networks.
• Since November 2010, both version 2007 and 2010 can be integrated into the Microsoft Communicator instant messaging service.

Outlook Editions

Outlook.com: Same Outlook email, but online for personal users.

Outlook.office.com: Outlook email, but online for corporate and business users.

Outlook Extensions

Outlook extensions are small helper programs for the Microsoft Outlook application. The main purpose of the extensions is to add new functional capabilities in Microsoft Outlook and to automate some routine operations. Outlook extensions can be developed in Microsoft Visual Studio or third-party tools like Add-in Express. Only a small number of extensions are supported in Outlook Web App.

From Outlook 97 onwards, Exchange Client Extensions are supported in Outlook. Outlook 2000 and later support specific C.O.M (Component Object Model) components called Outlook AddIns. The exact features supported (such as.NET components) for later generations were expanded with each release.

Hotmail Connector

Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector (abbreviated Hotmail Connector, formerly Microsoft Office Outlook Connector), was a free extension for Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 that allowed users to access Hotmail accounts through Microsoft Outlook. It uses DeltaSync, a proprietary Microsoft communications protocol.

This plugin is not seamless, although Microsoft Outlook 2013 has built-in support for accessing Hotmail and Outlook.com over the Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol.

Social Connector

Social Outlook Connector was a free extension for Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 by Microsoft that allowed the integration of social networks such as Facebook, Linkedin and Windows Live Messenger into Microsoft Outlook. It was first introduced on November 18, 2009. As of Microsoft Office 2010, the Outlook Social Connector is an integral part of Outlook.

CardDAV and CalDAV connector

Since Microsoft Outlook does not support the CalDAV and CardDAV protocol, several third-party software vendors have developed Outlook extensions to allow users to synchronize with CalDAV and CardDAV servers. CalConnect has a list of software that allow users to sync their calendars with CalDAV servers/contacts with CardDAV servers.