OL98: Differences Between Outlook and Outlook Express (257820)

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The Microsoft Outlook family of messaging and collaboration clients is based on the recognition that consumer and business users have different needs. The Outlook family of clients is designed to be optimized for these two distinct market segments:

• Home users who need easy and reliable Internet, e-mail, and newsgroup functionality
• Business users who need reliability and ease of use, but who also need richer e-mail functionality and integration between e-mail and tools for information management and collaboration

Most users find that their needs are best met by the client that has been optimized for their usage patterns. The following sections provide more information about how Microsoft Outlook Express meets the needs of home users, and how Outlook meets the needs of business users.

Microsoft Outlook Express

Outlook Express is the e-mail client that is included with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x, the Microsoft Windows 98 operating system, and Microsoft Office 98 for the Macintosh. Outlook Express is designed specifically for consumer and home users who primarily access their e-mail by dialing into an Internet service provider (ISP), Outlook Express offers a rich feature set that is easy to use.

Built on open Internet standards, Outlook Express is designed for use with any Internet standard system (POP3, SMTP, and IMAP). Full support for today's most important e-mail, news, and directory standards such as LDAP, MHTML, HTML, S/MIME, and NNTP helps ensure that users can take advantage of new technologies and seamlessly send and receive e-mail with anyone.

New migration tools that automatically import existing mail settings, address book entries, and e-mail messages from Eudora, Netscape, Microsoft Exchange Server, the Windows Inbox, and Outlook make it easy for users to get up and running quickly. The ability to receive mail from multiple e-mail accounts, along with inbox rules, helps users manage and organize their e-mail.

In addition, full support for HTML mail allows users to easily personalize their messages with custom backgrounds and graphics, making it easy to create unique, visually powerful messages.

For special occasions, such as birthdays or holidays, Outlook Express includes an array of stationery designed by Greetings Workshop and Hallmark.

Microsoft Outlook 98

Outlook is Microsoft's premier messaging and collaboration client. It ships as a stand-alone application and is scheduled to be integrated into Office and Exchange Server. Outlook also provides great performance and superb integration with Internet Explorer 4.0. Tight integration with Office and Exchange as well as complete integration of e-mail, calendaring, and contact management make Outlook 98 the perfect client for a wide spectrum of business users.

Outlook helps users easily find and organize information so they can work seamlessly with Office applications, and it also helps them communicate and share information more effectively.

Powerful inbox rules allow users to easily filter and organize their mail for easy reference later. With Outlook, users can integrate and manage e-mail (including the ability to receive mail from multiple e-mail accounts), personal and group calendars, contacts, and tasks.

Users can also take advantage of the platform for workgroup information sharing and workflow communications when using Outlook with Exchange Server, adding group scheduling, public folders, forms, and enhanced Internet connectivity.

Outlook 98 is designed for use with the Internet (SMTP/POP3 and IMAP4), Exchange Server, or any other standards-based communication system that supports MAPI, including voice mail. Outlook 98 is based on Internet standards and supports today's most important e-mail, news, and directory standards, including LDAP, MHTML, NNTP, MIME, and S/MIME, vCalendar, vCard, iCalendar, and full support for HTML mail.

Outlook 98 also offers the same import tools as Outlook Express, allowing for easy migration from other Microsoft and competitive e-mail clients, and also extends that functionality to offer further migration from Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Schedule+ 1.0, Schedule+ 7.0, Lotus Organizer, NetManage ECCO, Starfish SideKick, and Symantec ACT, as well as synchronization with leading PDAs such as 3Com's Palm Pilot. Outlook 98 also directly supports and connects to other back ends, such as HP OpenMail, Lotus Notes and cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, CompuServe, and MSN.

Deciding Which Client Best Suits Customer Needs

When choosing between Outlook Express and Outlook 98, users and organizations should base their usage decision on the criteria listed below.

Select Outlook Express for individuals or organizations with the following needs:

• Require only Internet e-mail and newsgroup functionality (for versions of Windows later than Microsoft Windows 95, versions of Windows earlier than Windows 95, Macintosh, and UNIX platforms).
• Use or plan to use Office 98 for Macintosh and want to take advantage of the integration of Outlook Express with this version of the Office suite.

Select Outlook for individuals or organizations with the following needs:

• Require advanced Internet-standards-based e-mail and discussion-group functionality.
• Require integrated personal calendars, group scheduling, task, and contact management.
• Require integrated e-mail and calendaring, cross-platform clients for versions of Windows later than Windows 95, versions of Windows earlier than Windows 95, and Macintosh platforms.
• Use or plan to use Office 97 or Exchange Server and want to take advantage of the strong integration of Outlook with the Office suite of products and with Exchange Server.
• Require robust, integrated run-time, and design-time collaboration capabilities.