[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Five surprisingly great things about Outlook 2013 here

[Beckola]

The zoom slider feature seems like a nice addition. However, the author completely misses the point of it. You set your default incoming font size to work for 99% of your messages. But when one comes in that is too small or large, you can quickly adjust it. It would be a major annoyance if it stayed zoomed +/- when clicked to the next message. However, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a right click feature that asks if you want to make this your default size. But that's not necessary.

[A41202813]

I Still Use OUTLOOK 2003 And Would Love To Use It For A Long Long Long Time.

The Most Surprisingly Great Thing About It Is The Third Digit Not Being A 1.

[TsarNikky]

Unless Microsoft changes the licensing agreement so that I can transfer the product to a new computer, I'll be sticking with my old version of Outlook. Microsoft telling me that I can't move a license from one computer to another is absurd. Greed? Arrogance? Both?

[compnovo]

I've found that the dark grey color scheme is the most user friendly (for me, anyway) since it makes it easier to click and drag messages to personal folders. The white background is too pale for my eyes, and the medium (light?) grey doesn't show the highlighted folder at all. Since I moved up from Outlook 2007 the ribbon wasn't much of an adjustment.

[kingpcgeek]

Ran the Outlook 2013 for a week. After that week I went back to 2010. While it had a couple of nice features, the absolute butchering they did to the task pane made me leave. The task pane in 2013 only shows appointments for the current day and will not show tasks at all. A task pane that will not show tasks is just plain dumb.

[polonium101]

What they added to 2013 was paltry compared to what they took away: emails still index for searching within Outlook 2013 but are no longer returned by Windows search (by design, they say), and emails can no longer be moved to or from Windows Live, Hotmail, etc., accounts due to limitations of EAS. EAS was a nice addition, but not with this serious limitation.

[jmpreston]

I've moved MS licenses to other computers many dozens of times. Office, Windows, MS-DOS, various other programs, no problem with any although occasionally I have to call MS if I move Windows to a 3rd computer or virtual machine.

Quote

Unless Microsoft changes the licensing agreement so that I can transfer the product to a new computer, I'll be sticking with my old version of Outlook. Microsoft telling me that I can't move a license from one computer to another is absurd. Greed? Arrogance? Both?

[brainout]

A41202813, on 25 February 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

I Still Use OUTLOOK 2003 And Would Love To Use It For A Long Long Long Time.

The Most Surprisingly Great Thing About It Is The Third Digit Not Being A 1.

Agreed! Outlook 2000 is even better, allowing more customization. But 2003 is far better than later versions.

PS: You can get Outlook 2000 onto Windows 7 32-bit. But Windows has to be installed first. I have three Win7 machines; one with MS Office 2003, one with MS Office 2002, and another with MS Office 2000. In each case, Win7 was on there first (I bought the machines with Win7 preinstalled, last November and January, from Dell auction, DFS sales and Outlet).

This post has been edited by brainout: 26 February 2013 - 08:44 AM

[Jon2525]

I too have reused a license,in the past, due to replacing a machine. The operative tense is "have". You won't be doing it with Win8 or Office 2013. Unless you have one of the corporate licensing products you will not be able to reuse a license. Both OEM (pre-installed) and boxed versions of Win8 and Office 2013 are a one time install on one machine. The literal read of the license says that you can't even reload the same PC without buying a new license. It remains to be seen if Microsoft gives a little leeway on that one.
IT Manager

Quote

I've moved MS licenses to other computers many dozens of times. Office, Windows, MS-DOS, various other programs, no problem with any although occasionally I have to call MS if I move Windows to a 3rd computer or virtual machine.

Unless Microsoft changes the licensing agreement so that I can transfer the product to a new computer, I'll be sticking with my old version of Outlook. Microsoft telling me that I can't move a license from one computer to another is absurd. Greed? Arrogance? Both?

[vcadambe]

Rick,
I am glad you decided to stay with Outlook. It is a good, but not perfect email utility. I wanted to point out that Outlook 2010 preview pane also had the zoom slider at the bottom right hand corner of the window.

Also, another way to zoom is to press the Ctrl button and roll the mouse wheel.

Regards
Vikram Cadambe
@vikramcadambe

[compnovo]

TsarNikky, on 25 February 2013 - 01:26 PM, said:

Unless Microsoft changes the licensing agreement so that I can transfer the product to a new computer, I'll be sticking with my old version of Outlook. Microsoft telling me that I can't move a license from one computer to another is absurd. Greed? Arrogance? Both?

I haven't tried moving it to a new computer yet, but I just upgraded the hard drive in my desktop and had zero problems with reinstalling and reactivating Office and Outlook 2013. I wasn't going to risk the upgrade until MS reported they were easing restrictions on Office 2013 transfers.

[AreYouKiddingMe]

Are you kidding me?
Have you even used this program?
Please go back and actually hook it up to an IMAP account and then come back and tell me what you really think.

This is a terrible program that puts the doors back on Outlook 2007 and makes you think that you once had a wonderful email client.

With all the complaints online about major functionality issues going all the way back to Fall of last year I can't believe that reviewers can write anything positive about this poorly engineered program.

I hope you guys get kickbacks from Microsoft because your support of this program ends any credibility that you have with me.

Obviously every program is "wonderful" right?

I need programs that work and reviewers that report spades for spades.

[brainout]

You gotta be kidding me. This article praises Outlook 2013 absent any knowledge of how it USED to be. Beginning with version 2003, Outlook became more and more dysfunctional. 2013 is worse yet.

Preview? Sizing the text? Seriously, this writer didn't know that was STANDARD in Outlook 2002 and prior? That was also the main characteristic of Outlook Express in XP, which is a big reason why I stay on XP. I organize all my folders by client name, so at a glance I can see the work done (everyone's always amazed at how I can speedily email them attachments over and over no matter how long ago they lost what I'd sent). And if I want, I can sort the mail generically across all folders by date or content or topic -- and see what I've done. I don't have to keep a separate calendar.

You can't do all that in the Outlook 2002 and prior, and of course can't do it at all in later versions (well, unless you go through a lot of hoops). But you can indeed PREVIEW and SIZE your email, calendar, notes, etc. In these earlier versions (which all will work in Windows 7 and probably 8, if the OS is installed first and 32-bit), you can display calendar, tasks, and mail alongside each other, too. Not so, in 2003 et seq.

So go to Amazon and buy Outlook 2002-2000 (I prefer 2000). Install it AFTER you've installed the OS (won't work in 64-bit, I suspect, but will work in 32-bit). It's the ONLY compatible way you can port forward your XP mail from Outlook Express, and still keep the Word-style functionality. Thunderbird does try to ape Outlook Express, but is not as good, especially if you have multiple Windows versions (mine run from Win98SE-Win7, with Win8 someday in the offing). Outlook is part of MS Office Professional, in these years. I think they usually sell new or open box and not OEM, for $100 or less. I think I paid maybe $50 for my latest unopened sets at Amazon.

Oh: in these earlier versions, you can customize the menu extensively. Big help and worth the time to do that.

This way, maybe MS will wake up to the fact it always REMOVES USEFUL FEATURES from its later software which customers wanted and used.

[Lameduck9]

Outlook 2013 -I can not comprehend why they erased "Distribution List". It worked like a charm and it appears cannot be made to work the same way with "categories".

[brainout]

Just learned this: Outlook 2003 won't give you print preview in your outgoing mail. The mail feature in Outlook 2003 is the worst part about it, compared to the earlier versions.

I don't understand how Microsoft's management can be so inept, not to realize they destroy the good features of their own products, in each later iteration. This lack of discernment, this callous deafness is baffling. I just can't trust MS anymore.

This post has been edited by brainout: 30 April 2013 - 09:11 AM

[Hypercircle1983]

NO THEMES>
IF YOU BUY OUTLOOK YOU GET 3 COLORS.

MAKE YOUR EYES BLEED WHITE
DRAB GRAY
REALLY DRAB GRAY.

WTF

It's like outlook 2010 only WAY WORSE. I can't emphasize the pain my eyes are going through.