Customer Reviews

Microsoft Outlook 2003 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I read that Outlook 2003 is the only office application worth upgrading from Office XP, and I wanted the additional features, such as spam filter so I decided to buy it. I'm not disappointed with the software especially with the easy on the eyes interface.

The upgrade from Outlook 2002 was seamless. Even my RSS News Feed Reader, NewsGator, integrated seamlessly with the new 2003 version without having to do anything.

The one bad thing about having a news feed reader is that when I go to unread messages, I no longer get my unread messages, because the first time I went there I had over 65536 messages that were old news and it took about an half an hour to count up all of the messages. I was not able to mark all of these messages as read (right click, "mark all read"), and even after I marked each folder as read manually, my unread mail folder is still stuck, so I removed it from my favorites list.

I like the spam filters, but there is no way to mark a spam message as being read and just leave it in the spam folder. You have to delete the message before the message count goes down.

About certain file extensions being blocked. If you really need to send a certain file extension that is blocked, you can rename the file to use another extension. For example rename program.exe to program.exeREMOVE. You may have to ask some people to rename their files before sending them, but it's better than getting a virus that is newly out in the wild because you thought it was trustable.

Also, I didn't see any ads in the program, so I'm not sure why someone would say it's adware.

The lack of integration with Word 2002 is not a problem since when word starts up as the email editor in Outlook 2002, it takes too long anyhow. I prefer the standard editor and just tell it to check spelling before sending instead of getting spelling tips while I type. You can still format a document using fonts and bold/italics with the standard editor. I never found any extra utility in having Word as the editor.

2003 version has a much better rules wizard. Right click on an email and select "create rule", and you get a cleaned up version of 2002's email rules interface that is easier to use.

The one annoying thing about Outlook 2003 is that whenever a message comes in, it appears above the icon tray on the task bar, and whenever it prepares a view and takes too long, a pop up dialog ala windows update says "Outlook is Preparing the Requested View". Since I don't like the cartoon dialog boxes popping up from my tray constantly I find this to be extra annoying.

Is it worth the price? Probably not, compared to other products, but on the other hand, it is better than Outlook 2002 and probably worth upgrading.

Limited integration of standalone Outlook 2003 with word or office 2000.
*The following from Microsoft Outlook 2003 deployment site:
"If users upgrade to Outlook 2003 before upgrading to other Office applications, they will not be able to use Microsoft WordMail as their e-mail editor. The version of Microsoft Word must match the version of Outlook in order for WordMail to be available as the editor in Outlook."

I like the new interface, but Outlook 2003 will not use Word as the text editor unless you also install Word 2003. Once you uninstall Outlook 2003 you have to reinstall your entire Office program to get your old Outlook back. WHY DON'T THEY WARN YOU ABOUT THIS IN ADVANCE? But Microsoft will refund your purchase price if you call 800-360-7561.

Usually when a new Office comes out from Microsoft, the biggest visual and interface changes are with Outlook. The 2003 edition is no exception with the largest interface changes to date. Don't be too surprised if offices continue to choose Office 97 or 2000 while runnng Outlook 2003.

I really like the changes. The ability to make it so that it doesn't appear on your Windows taskbar when minimized is my favorite. This leaves room for other applications and then Outlook is easily accessed from the task manager.

I also like the new look and interface. It is more efficient and I like being able to read more of an Email when I select it. I also like how it hides graphics unless you want to view them. This greatly speeds up my Email reading time. And the new junk mail filter is wonderful. Again, it speeds up my Email reading time again. My biggest gripe is that when a new Email comes in it creates a window in the task manager (that's not my gripe, I like that), but when you read the message, you need to change Email messages in order for the envelope to go away. I keep opening up Email to see new messages only to find that I'm still viewing the last new one that came in. Maybe in the future service pack that I know will come out.

The ability to view unread messages also speeds up Email reading time. And having a "favorite folders" view pane is very nice, again making my day more efficient.

Another great benefit is to allow others to know you are busy without requiring an Exchange server. YAY!!!

If you don't upgrade your entire Office product to Office 2003, at least upgrade the Outlook portion of it. Outlook was originally designed to make your day more efficient, and they have finally come out with a version that does just that. Highly recommended, especially for those who use Outlook a lot!

I upgraded from Outlook 2000, mainly because of the claimed improvement in spam filtering.

I am sorry to say that I did not like the new interface at all. It's overwhelming and crowded. The spam filter options are only slightly different from the previous version. And when I send out an e-mail, Norton Anti-virus takes five times longer to start scanning the message, sometimes resulting in a failed outgoing message.

So I went back to Outlook 2000, and of course I'm now stuck with 2003 and can't return it. Maybe I'll try it some other day.

Outlook 2003 was a huge difference from my previous version. It is very user friendly if you just install and get going. I purchased an Outlook book to help me get going, and it was great.

Pros- faster from contact to email to notes. friendlier to my pop3 email. you can get more done faster when it comes to organizing. Lots of good plugins online.

Cons-not backwards compatible with the rest of the office suite. If all you want is outlook to stand alone, it is great as a single upgrade. If you want to use it with word and the rest, upgrade the whole office package.

Hope this helped.

Marty

I have always given Outlook a second chance every time Microsoft comes out with a new version and some reason or another I end up switching back to something else.

I really like the concepts of having an "all-in-one" package for email, contacts, appointments, etc; But Microsoft needs to start paying more attention to detail on email functionality.

After using Outlook 2003 for about a year now, here are some annoyances that are driving me away from this product.

1.) Cannot add my own email filters and filter rules. This feature should be a given and my biggest complaint. Why do I need to rely on Microsoft to update Junk Email filters for me? Other email clients (Such as Netscape) allow me to add a filter for certain key words and an action such as "send to trash" if it encounters those key words.

2.) Junk Email features are a joke. Again, anchored on my 1st complaint, if junk email arrives in my inbox, I have to add the sender to the block senders list. This is fine if the sender always uses the same return address, but as you know with spammers, this is never the case. Also, Outlook waits to inform me that the email is junk AFTER I've opened the email.

3.) Too much security, and no control. Is there such thing as too much security? I believe there is if I can't control what I want enabled and disabled without a bunch of registry hacks.
Instead of Microsoft making the decision for me of what I can view or cannot view as an attachment, I would prefer to make that decision for myself.

4.) Favorite Email Folders is a stupid and useless feature and you can't get rid it. This window is just useless clutter, but yet again, we have no control of what's displayed in the outlook window. Enough said.

5.) Forwarded messages arrive as attachments, no way to change this. Another big complaint of mine. If a message was forwarded 3,4 or more times, I have keep drilling down through the attachments for each time the message was forwarded just to get to the original message. Ultimately you end up with x number of useless windows open cluttering up your taskbar and x number of windows I have to close once I'm done reading the original message. If a message was forwarded 4 times before it got to me, that's 4 times I have to double click an attachment and 4 extra windows open. It would be nice to have the option to have all forwarded messages contained within the same message body instead as an attachment.

I like the new layout of the panes in the Outlook 2003 window but is it worth the price of the upgrade? Probably not.
I have run into a few problems since I first rated this product.
I read a couple reviews of the Office 2003 upgrade and found that others felt the Outlook 2003 upgrade is the only part of the new Office suite that is worth the cost and hassle to upgrade. I decide to take their advice (and save $) and only upgrade OL.
Two problems have arisen since then.
1. The Office Shortcut bar is no longer a part of the Office suite. This is a great disappointment to me because this is one of the great efficiency tools that Windows has to offer. Luckily, Office XP is still installed as Word/Excel/PowerPoint so I still have the bar but the buttons which applied to OL 2003 are no longer available. If you are dependent on this feature as I have become, don't upgrade the full suite or it will disappear.
2. Because of the conflicting versions of the Office suite that I am using, there isn't full functionality between the programs anymore. For example, I can no longer send the body of a Word/Excel document as the body of an email by simply clicking the "E-mail" on the toolbar in the application. This is more trivial than the first issue.

The spam filters that come with Outlook are neat, they are doing (as yet) an amazing job of filtering out junk and not flagging legit mail by accident. MS has obviously had a bit of inspiration to go with, products/plug-ins like Spam Inspector (Giant Company) or Mailshell have been around for a while now.

However, the new Business Contact Manager is a mess, and the supposed new friendly "look and feel" lasted me no more than 2 days. Had to switch back to what my email typically looks like. Not because I am averse to change, but it is just so much more efficient. If I wanted needless good looks, I'd go with the smilie-ridden "Incredimail."

My 20 yen: if you already use Outlook, just buy the upgrade and save yourself the rest.

Outlook 2003 is certainly prettier than past versions, but I find the interface cluttered and harder to use. For example, in Outlook 2000 you could enter a Contact's nickname in the 'To' line, but this doesn't work with this 'upgrade'. Also annoying is the Microsoft Online billboard that appears to the right of the screen, masquerading as a help bar. It does include help functionality, but it also includes 'push' topics that tout Microsoft's other products.

My biggest gripe is that Outlook 2003 added a new nanny feature that prevent users from receiving email attachments with dozens of extensions, including Access and Foxpro database files. If you're using Outlook in standalone mode, you can't override this setting. You can't save the file. You can't forward it. You're just out of luck. Also, if another user tries to email you a link to a website (using the 'send as link' function in IE), Outlook blocks the resulting .url file.

Of course there are clunky workarounds for all these deficiencies, assuming you can cajole the sender into putting up with the hassle of jumping through hoops made necessary by your new mail client. Security is important, but crippling your software rather than designing it correctly in the first place sounds more like a shareware workaround than the latest product of a $270 billion company.

I got Office 2003 on my new PC, but if I could, I would go back to Outlook 2000 in a heartbeat. If you're thinking of upgrading, don't!