Microsoft has taken great pains to provide seamless integration between all Office 2000 components, as well as with Internet Explorer 5.0 and the Internet. Outlook 2000 has developed into a world-class Office E-Mail and Personal Information Manager in large part because of this seamless integration. Outlook 2000 is now a full-fledged messaging and collaboration client, enabling you to organize and share information across a company intranet or the entire Internet. Let's look at some of the highlights.
Simplified menus and dialog boxes
Outlook menus and dialog boxes have been simplified so that you can find things more easily. For example, the Options dialog box (Tools menu, Options command) now has only one row of tabs, and the View menu has been rearranged to display only the most frequently used commands on the main menu. There's also a new Actions menu that contains commands specific to the view you are in. As they are in all Office 2000 applications, the menus in Outlook are automatically personalized to display the commands you use most often and remove those you never use. When you click an Outlook menu, only frequently used commands are shown at first.
Communication Across the Internet
With the Save As Web Page feature, personal or team calendars can be posted to a web page or sent in e-mail messages viewable in any browser. Contact information is easily shared across the Internet with vCard technology. Support for iCalendar group scheduling and HTML Mail makes it possible to set up meetings, share schedules, send and receive content-rich e-mail messages, all online. The Contact Manager provides all the capabilities one looks for in a PIM and then some - including the ability to map out client locations, make phone calls, schedule meetings, and send e-mail messages. Outlook Today is the central location where you can view your daily appointments, manage your task list and stay on top of your e-mail inbox.
