Building Applications With Microsoft Outlook 98 (Indep. Programming) (Paperback)

by Microsoft Corporation (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Microsoft Outlook 98 is the advanced desktop information manager that helps everyone get the most from Microsoft Office 97. With Microsoft Outlook, you can create custom groupware-fast. Microsoft Outlook 98 offers a full range of personal information tools-electronic mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and journal-that are fully integrated with each other and with other applications in Microsoft Office 97. There are amazing possibilities for customizing groupware, and this book shows users how to do it.

Now completely updated with the latest information available about Microsoft Outlook 98, BUILDING APPLICATIONS WITH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 98 is a results-oriented book that gives readers the information, strategies, and sample applications they need to easily build useful groupware applications, make their workplace more productive, and get the most out of their Microsoft Office 97 investment. The companion CD-ROM contains Microsoft Outlook 98 as well as the sample forms and VBScript code necessary to create and use the sample applications in the book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 515 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572317183
• ISBN-13: 978-1572317185
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #159,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction
  #34 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Applications > Outlook
  #53 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Scheduling & E-mail

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Introductory Guide for those brand-new to Outlook, January 11, 2000

By	Gregory P. Lamanna (Canyon Country, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a Visual Basic developer who is new to Outlook development. Yes, the book is basic in it's discussion of controls and development concepts. However, I found it a decent 'first-step' in 'breaking the ice' of the Outlook development architecture.

Yes, the previous reviews are correct in saying that this book is NOT for the experienced Outlook developer. (I am always leery of books that list NO AUTHORS, noting only an 'editor, et al' ... does no one wish to take credit [blame] for the book?)

But for those who have NO development/programming experience, this is for you. It speaks in basic, easy to absorb, step-by-step language, assuming nothing. As of this writing, I am half-way through the book and there has been no discussion of Exchange Server, serious Visual Basic coding, CDO concepts, nor have the topics wandered from the built-in, 'pre-selected' development interfaces in Outlook.

However, the organization is largely built around several pre-created applications (found in the accompanying CD). As the reader, in step-by-step fashion, reconstructs these applications, the purpose of the applications, as well as the Outlook environment, becomes evident. This allows the BEGINNER to learn by DOING. At times the repeating of concepts become tedious, but the upside is that the beginner is forced to 'rehash' (i.e., LEARN) the concepts in the 'creation' (or re-construction) of multiple applications.

For serious Outlook development, you will need to immediately proceed to a more in-depth book. This book serves ONLY as a 'whistle-wetter.'

However, if have NO applications development experience whatsoever and need to 'dive-in' to Outlook 98 applications creation, this book is the perfect first-step.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money - this is not a developer's guide, June 15, 1999

By	"debrahh" (El Segundo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

If you simply want to learn to use precreated forms - you may get some small value out of this book. If you want to be able to create templates using other objects such as spreadsheets - forget it. This book was a waste of money - especially since I still need to go out and get something that really does give instruction on creating an Outlook application :(

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missing many essentials and not especially helpful to me., July 24, 1998

By A Customer

This book was generally a disappointment to me. For instance, the book never mentions the exceedingly critical fact that most of the Outlook workgroup functions are worth nothing unless you have purchased and installed Exchange Server for your workgroup. It blithely assumes that you have Exchange before you bought the book. And we are most concerned about how to make Outlook work with Access, but this is hardly mentioned, and I extracted no useful information on this topic. The author attempts to make the book relevant to the typical user by including a number of examples with code, but if you can't use these specific examples I'm not sure where you would turn next. The book lacks the comprehensive nature of a reference, and really is best at instructing beginning Outlook users in the fundamentals of form creation and task management. But that's the irony: anyone concerned with form creation and task management will already be an intermediate user! The book moves very ! slowly through the fundamentals as though afraid of scaring you off with too much technical content. If your needs are beyond this simple scope, and likely they are or shortly will be, you will find that this book is insufficient.

By the way, thanks to all of you who submit book reviews - they are really useful to me.