Ten years ago the average computer user spent most of his or her time using a productivity application such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. In the ensuing decade, users have become more sophisticated, network implementations have become the rule rather than the exception, and collaboration has become a key facet of a successful business strategy. Perhaps the most significant change of all has been the explosive growth of the Internet. All these factors have led to a subtle but significant shift in the way people work. Today, most users of Microsoft Office spend a majority of their time in Microsoft Outlook. That change alone signifies a shift toward information management as an increasingly important everyday task. Getting a handle on daily information management can be critical to your productivity, success, and sanity.

Outlook is an extremely versatile program. Most of the other applications in the Office suite have a narrower purpose. Outlook, however, serves as personal information manager (PIM), e-mail application, fax machine, task manager, and much more. With so much power and flexibility at your fingertips, you need to have a good understanding of all of those features. Understanding the ins and outs of Outlook will not only help you get the most from this program, but could also have a positive impact on your workday.

Understanding all of Outlook’s features and putting them to work is the focus of Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 Inside Out. Most Outlook books act mainly as how-to guides for users who want to learn about Outlook. This approach leaves out workgroup managers and administrators when it comes to deployment, collaboration, server-side issues, and administration. Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 Inside Out offers a comprehensive look at the features most people will use in Outlook and serves as an excellent reference for users who need to understand what they can do with Outlook and how to accomplish it. However, Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 Inside Out goes a step or two further, providing useful information to advanced users and IT professionals who need to understand the bigger picture. Whether you want to learn Outlook for your own use, need to support Outlook on a peer-to-peer network, or are in charge of supporting Outlook under Microsoft Exchange Server, you’ll find the information and answers you need between the covers of Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 Inside Out.

This book makes some assumptions about the reader. You should be familiar with your client operating system, whether it’s Windows 9x, Windows Me, Windows NT, or Windows 2000. You should be comfortable working with a computer and have a good understanding of how to work with menus, dialog boxes, and other aspects of the user interface. In short, Microsoft Outlook Version 2002 Inside Out assumes you’re an experienced computer user who might or might not have an understanding of Outlook and what it can do. The purpose of this book is to give you a comprehensive look at what Outlook can do, how to put Outlook to work, and how to manage Outlook at the user, workgroup, and server levels.