Is it just me or is it annoying in here?

Is Outlook annoying or what?

Outlook is great, too, and we use it to do real work everyday. It manages our contacts' names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses; it tracks our appointments; it lets us assign tasks to each other; it does meeting requests. Heck, Outlook holds our collective email lives in its sometimes shaky cyberhands. It has an incredible depth of useful features. Even after working with test versions for many months, the product continues to take our collective breaths away. If only it wasn't so annoying!

At best, Outlook 97 is still in its beta cycle and Outlook 98 is a 1.0 release camouflaged with an 8.5 version number. Remember when the first release was "1" and the next release was "2"? Ah, the good ol' days before the Microsoft marketeers took over. But we digress. Mixed in with the many outstanding features that Outlook sports, you'll find a number of very annoying gotchas, hiccups, and pitfalls. So what's not to like? One of Woody's favorite, ahem, annoyances (to coin a phrase) crops up when you reply to a formatted message: heaven only knows what format your reply will be in. Outlook also lacks many features most Office 97 aficionados take for granted; VBA stands at the top of that list.

The good news is that a little knowledge can go a long, long way in helping you cope with Outlook's annoying eccentricities, and you're holding that knowledge in your hands right now. From checklists for troubleshooting email problems to configuration and interface optimizing tips, we'll walk you through the landmines right to the productivity gold.

And by the way, that "Manage Forms" button won't appear on the Options dialog if you're running Outlook 98's Internet Only mode. It's a bug. Annoying, huh?

The Book's Audience

Whether you're a novice or a seasoned pro we don't think you need more marketing hype. You don't need to be told you're the dummy, nor do you need a rehash of the…well, we were going to say "User's Manual," but they don't have user manuals anymore. Instead you get beeping icons that won't tell you what you need or want to know. What you need is some help! Someone with useful advice so you can harness the substantial horsepower that hums under the Outlook hood.

That's where this book comes in. Trying to make Outlook do email distribution lists? Problems when searching, sorting, entering, or converting data? Not clear on the differences between Internet Only versus Corporate/Workgroup modes, or how to force Outlook to let you install the mode you want instead of the mode it mandates you need? If you've ever found yourself annoyed with Outlook, this is the book for you.

Also, if you're thinking about migrating from another personal information manager (PIM) product and would like that process to be as painless as possible, then this is the book for you.