Presented ByTrisha Cummings

Microsoft Outlook or Outlook (full name Microsoft Office Outlook since Outlook 2003) is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite.

The range includes Outlook, Outlook 2000, Outlook Express, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007,etc.

Although often used mainly as an e-mail application, it also provides a calendar, task and contact management, note taking, a journal and web browsing.

It can be used as a stand-alone application, but can also operate in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server to provide enhanced functions for multiple users in an organization, such as shared mailboxes and calendars, public folders and meeting time allocation.

Short for electronic mail - it is a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.

The term "e-mail" (as a noun or verb) applies both to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to X.400 systems, and to intranet systems allowing users within one organization to e-mail each other.

Intranets may use the Internet protocols or X.400 protocols for internal e-mail service supporting workgroup collaboration.

E-mail is often used to deliver bulk unsolicited messages, or "spam“ , but filter programs exist which can automatically delete some or most of these, depending on the situation.

Spelling e-mail is disputed. Many now regard the word "email" as a perfectly

valid and formal word in its own right, and regard the abbreviation "e-mail" as anachronistic.

The word "email" is recognized as a valid English word in all major dictionaries however the e-mail abbreviation is often still used.

Despite the word "email" being used in common English the computer industry and web sites still use multiple variants of the term.

Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 15th edition[ - says e-mail. CMS is widely referenced as the standard for technical writing and journalism style guidelines in the United States.

Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications – says e-mail, explicitly saying "maintain the hyphenation". O'Reilly and Amazon.com assert that "many top notch technical companies, writers, and editors consider the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications to be a standard in the industry."

IEEE Computer Society recommends hyphenation in e-mail, deferring to the Chicago Manual of Style explicitly, and using it in their own materials

Associated Press (Global News Network) Style Guide: says e-mail

e-mail: CNN, BBC, The New York Times, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Amazon.com, CNET

email: Google, Apple, Yahoo!, eBay

Inconsistent: Intel

E-mail predates the inception of the Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet.

MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961.

It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094[from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk.

This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways.

E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate.

Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were System Development Corp (SDC's) Q32 and MIT's CTSS.

E-mail was quickly extended to become network e-mail, allowing users to pass messages between different computers by at least 1966.

The ARPANET computer network made a large contribution to the development of e-mail.

There is one report that indicates experimental inter-system e-mail transfers on it shortly after its creation, in 1969.

Ray Tomlinson initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the names of the user and their machine in 1971.

The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity of e-mail, and it became the killer app of the ARPANET.

Flaming Many observers bemoan the rise of flaming in written communications. Flaming occurs when one person sends an angry and/or antagonistic message. Flaming is assumed to be more common today because of the ease and

impersonality of e-mail communications: confrontations in person or via telephone require direct interaction, where social norms encourage civility, whereas typing a message to another person is an indirect interaction, so civility may be forgotten.

In business E-mail was widely accepted by the business community as the first broad

electronic communication medium and was the first ‘e-revolution’ in Business communication.

E-mail is very simple to understand and like postal mail, e-mail solves two basic problems of communication.

LAN based email is also an emerging form of usage for business. It not only allows the business user to download mail when offline, it also provides the small business user to have multiple users email ID's with just one email connection.

The problem of logistics Much of the business world relies on communication between

individuals who are physically distant from one another; organizing and participating in an in-person meeting can be time-consuming and expensive.

Email provides a near-instantaneous exchange of information at little cost.

Teleconferencing bridges physical distance, but the logistics of gathering people together at the same time remains.

The problem of synchronization For real time communication, participants generally have to be

working on the same schedule. They need to be at the same place at the same time and spend the

same amount of time on the same information. E-mail allows each participant to decide when and how they will

process the information.

Time Most business professionals today spend between 20% and 50% of their

working time using e-mail: reading, ordering, sorting, ‘re-contextualizing’ fragmented information and of course writing email.

Use of e-mail is increasing, due to trends of globalization—distribution of organizational divisions, outsourcing, among others.

E-mail can lead to some well-known problems: Loss of Context: Information in context (as in a newspaper) is much easier and

faster to understand than unsorted fragments. Communicating in context is faster and more efficient.

Spam: E-mail is a push-only medium: control of who receives information lies primarily with the sender. This can lead to an overflow of unwanted or irrelevant information.

Inconsistency: E-mail can duplicate information. This may be a problem when a team is collaboratively working on documents.

Despite these disadvantages, and despite the availability of other tools, e-

mail-based communication is still the most widely used written medium in businesses.

Nettiquite is a set of rules for the way you should act on the inetrnet.

It applies to everything including pirating software, stealing information, harrassing someone, etc.

The Core Rules of Netiquette are excerpted from the book Netiquette by Virginia Shea.

DON'T Forward Chain Letters No dying child wants your business cards, get well cards etc. This child

died many years ago,and the hospitals, clinics are tired of the mail. The FCC and/or Postal Service is NOT planning to add a tax on E-mail.

They don't have the authority! Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Sony, Sega, Microsoft and the like WILL NOT PAY

YOU, give you a camcorder, Disneyland tickets, Palm Pilots or whatever for forwarding some silly bogus E-Mail message.

Nobody has awakened in a bathtub of ice after someone stole their kidney.

If it says "Send This to Everyone You Know," DON'T! No matter HOW many times you forward some E-Mail, you will NOT see

a video, or get any reward. NO ONE IN NIGERIA Will Deposit ANY Money Into Your Account! You have NOT been 'Specially Selected!'

Rule 1: Remember the Human The golden rule your parents and your kindergarten teacher taught you was pretty simple:

Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes.

Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings. Would you say it to the person's face? Another reason not to be offensive online

When you communicate through cyberspace -- via email or on discussion groups -- your words are written. And chances are they're stored somewhere where you have no control over them.

In other words, there's a good chance they can come back to haunt you.

Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life

Be ethical Breaking the law is bad In real life, most people are fairly law-abiding, either by disposition or because we're afraid of

getting caught. In cyberspace, the chances of getting caught sometimes seem slim. And, perhaps because people sometimes forget that there's a human being on the other side of the computer, some people think that a lower standard of ethics or personal behavior is acceptable in cyberspace.

Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace Netiquette varies from domain to domain Lurk before you leap

Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth You are not the center of cyberspace Rules for discussion groups

Rule 4 has a number of implications for discussion group users. Most discussion group readers are already spending too much time sitting at the computer; their significant others, families, and roommates are drumming their fingers, wondering when to serve dinner, while those network maniacs are catching up on the latest way to housebreak a puppy or cook zucchini.

To whom should messages be directed? (Or why "mailing list" could become a dirty word)

In the old days, people made copies with carbon paper. You could only make about five legible copies. So you thought good and hard about who you wanted to send those five copies to.

Today, it's as easy to copy practically anyone on your mail as it is not to. And we sometimes find ourselves copying people almost out of habit. In general, this is rude. People have less time than ever today, precisely because they have so much information to absorb. Before you copy people on your messages, ask yourself whether they really need to know. If the answer is no, don't waste their time. If the answer is maybe, think twice before you hit the send key.

Rule 5: Make yourself look good online Take advantage of your anonymity

No one can see you. You won't be judged by the color of your skin, eyes, or hair, your weight, your age, or your clothing.

You will, however, be judged by the quality of your writing. For most people who choose to communicate online, this is an advantage; if they didn't enjoy using the written word, they wouldn't be there. So spelling and grammar do count.

Know what you're talking about and make sense Pay attention to the content of your writing. Be sure you know what you're talking about -- when you see yourself writing "it's my

understanding that" or "I believe it's the case," ask yourself whether you really want to post this note before checking your facts.

Bad information propagates like wildfire on the net. Don't post flame-bait

Finally, be pleasant and polite. Don't use offensive language, and don't be confrontational for the sake of confrontation.

Q. Is swearing acceptable on the net? Only in those areas where sewage is considered an art form, e.g., the USENET newsgroup

alt.tasteless. Usually, if you feel that cursing in some form is required, it's preferable to use amusing

euphemisms like "effing" and "sugar." You may also use the classic asterisk filler -- for example, s***.

The archness is somehow appropriate to the net, and you avoid offending anyone needlessly. And everyone will know exactly what you mean.

Rule 6: Share expert knowledge The strength of cyberspace is in its numbers. The reason asking questions online works is that a lot of knowledgeable people are reading

the questions. And if even a few of them offer intelligent answers, the sum total of world knowledge

increases. The Internet itself was founded and grew because scientists wanted to share information.

Gradually, the rest of us got in on the act. So do your part. Despite the long lists of no-no's in this book, you do have something to offer.

Don't be afraid to share what you know. Sharing your knowledge is fun. It's a long-time net tradition. And it makes the world a better

place.

Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control "Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back

any emotion. It's the kind of message that makes people respond, "Oh come on, tell us how you really feel." Tact is not its objective.

Does Netiquette forbid flaming? Not at all. Flaming is a long-standing network tradition (and Netiquette never messes with tradition). Flames can be lots of fun, both to write and to read. And the recipients of flames sometimes deserve

the heat. But Netiquette does forbid the perpetuation of flame wars -- series of angry letters, most of

them from two or three people directed toward each other, that can dominate the tone and destroy the camaraderie of a discussion group.

It's unfair to the other members of the group. And while flame wars can initially be amusing, they get boring very quickly to people who aren't

involved in them. They're an unfair monopolization of bandwidth.

Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy Of course, you'd never dream of going through your colleagues' desk drawers. So naturally you wouldn't read their email either.

Rule 9: Don't abuse your power Some people in cyberspace have more power than others. There are wizards in MUDs (multi-user dungeons), experts in every office, and

system administrators in every system. Knowing more than others, or having more power than they do, does not give

you the right to take advantage of them. For example, sysadmins should never read private email.

Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes Everyone was a network newbie once. So when someone makes a mistake -- whether it's a spelling error or a spelling

flame, a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer -- be kind about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel strongly about it, think twice before reacting. Having good manners yourself doesn't give you license to correct everyone else.

If you do decide to inform someone of a mistake, point it out politely, and preferably by private email rather than in public.

Give people the benefit of the doubt; assume they just don't know any better. And never be arrogant or self-righteous about it. Just as it's a law of nature that spelling flames always contain spelling errors,

notes pointing out Netiquette violations are often examples of poor Netiquette.

The calendar feature of Outlook provides for the electronic management of time, storing information you would expect to find in a paper based appointment book.

By default, the calendar is displayed in the Day/Week/Month view with a detailed hour-by-hour list of appointments displayed for the selected day.

The calendar can be viewed daily, by the 5-day work week, weekly or monthly.

Event- An event is an activity that lasts 24 hours or longer, such as a birthday, vacation or a convention.

Appointment- Appointments are activities that you schedule in your calendar that do not involve inviting other people or reserving resources.

Meeting- A meeting is an appointment you invite people to or reserve resources for.

Time Line- Displays the time of day and allows for point and click selection of an appointment time.

Free Time- Display of the time available on the selected day.

Date Navigator- Allows for point and click selection of date. Dates that are boldfaced have a scheduled appointment.

Task Pad- The electronic to-do list.

Outlook displays icons next to entries in the calendar to illustrate the type entries:

Outlook will issue a reminder once the appointment is due.

The calendar entry is a meeting. This is a recurring appointment,

whereby you set up a recurring pattern (daily, weekly, etc.).

The Contacts folder is your email address book and information storage for the people and businesses you want to communicate with.

Use the Contacts folder to store the email address, street address, multiple phone numbers, and any other information that relates to the contact, such as a birthday or anniversary date.

Some people refer to Contacts as an Electronic Rolodex. These are some f the thing you can do:

Creating a Contact Searching a Contact Edit a Contact Delete a Contact

Consider Tasks as your To-Do list. As you work on Tasks in your list, you can update the

percentage of work done on each project. Various views will help you see which items are on schedule and

which need attention. You can assign tasks to others or have others assign them

to you. Once the recipient accepts responsibility for a specified task,

you will no longer be able to modify that task. You can, however, view its progress as the owner of the task

updates it through their own Task view. And for those of you who need to keep more detailed

records of hours spend, the Task List provides you with more items you can track.

Notes are your electronic Post-its! When those brainstorms hit and your mind is

rolling with brilliant ideas, you can jot them down in Notes before you forget them.

Add different colors to help you easily keep them organized...from tips and tricks and PC shortcut reminders to shopping lists.

One of Microsoft's goals is for the e-mail client to be easy to use.

However, the embedded automation and lack of security features compared to competitors have been repeatedly exploited by malicious hackers using e-mail viruses.

These typically take the form of an e-mail attachment which executes on the user's machine and replicates itself by mass-mailing the user's or Exchange server's address list.

Examples of such viruses are the Melissa and Sobig worms.

Other programs have exploited Outlook's HTML e-mail capabilities to execute malicious code or confirm that e-mail addresses are valid targets for spam.

The notoriety of the worms and other viruses has gained Outlook a reputation as a highly insecure e-mail platform.

Unix programmer Bill Joy has suggested that Outlook is insecure largely because it was written in C, making it easy to write programs to exploit it.

He also believes the widespread use of Outlook is a major contributing factor in the proliferation of spam.

As part of its Trustworthy Computing 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 e-mails, and includes a built-in Junk Mail filter.

Service Pack 2 has augmented these features and adds an anti-Phishing filter .

This release was well received, and regarded as the primary driver of Office upgrades among business users.[

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Outlook/manual/basic/ContactsBasics.pdf http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/

LPMArticle.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook