Microsoft Outlook for the Average Joe

Email is important. Nearly everyone these days has at least one email account.

Most Windows PC’s ship with a watered down version of Outlook (Outlook Express). Some of these even come with full versions of the entire MS Office suite, including Outlook 2007. This weblog is for those that have Outlook 2007, but have never had a need for it or just didn’t want to bother opening it up and dealing with setup.

Before I go into the features and benefits of using Outlook, I’d like to point out that several free alternatives exist that are available to everyone. Mozilla, makers of the famous Firefox web browser, also offer a free email program called Thunderbird. It is not quite as robust as Outlook, but it is certainly better than not using an email program at all….as you will see.

Why would I want to use Outlook or a similar email program?

There are several reasons. First, it is efficient. You can have access to multiple email accounts at the touch of your mouse button, without the hassle of signing in every time. Second, you are able to also, in addition to standard email, have a calendar (that can synchronize with certain phones) and a contact list, right at your fingertips. It gets better! You can set appointments by the calendar (and even down to 1/4 hour) and set notification alerts to alert you ahead of time when you have an important meeting scheduled, for example. (birthdays and anniversaries are great here too!)

One of my favorite features of Outlook in particular is the ability to send your email at a certain future time. With the delay send feature, you can send, for example, an email you typed late at work to your clients at 9:00 A.M. the next day. Nearly nobody wants a work-associated email after work hours. With this feature, you can have it in their inbox first thing in the morning.

Ok, This sounds cool, but how do I set it up?

It depends. Certain email providers, like Google’s GMail, provide instructions on how to set up your email program to synchronize with their service. Microsoft’s MSN (now called Live), also provides free access for email programs. If you have an email associated with your internet service provider (cable or dsl…like [email protected]), you can also use that. For those with email addresses linked to their business, you can most certainly use that as well. Unfortunately, Yahoo does not provide the necessary connections (referred to as POP, POP3, IMAP, etc.) for free at this time.

Ok, so you have an email account that you want to use in Outlook. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll list a good resource for setting things up in Outlook 2007.

https://www.help30.com/helpemailPOP/Outlook2007Setup.html

If you need additional help, feel free to contact us.