Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell: A User's Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

With most of the books currently on the market for Outlook 2000 falling into the instant-learn, limited-scope "Dummies" category, the need for an up-to-date and comprehensive reference book such as Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell is high. This book is for typical Nutshell readers: sophisticated computer users who need a comprehensive, functional reference to the product. Outlook is much more than just an email client. It is a powerful and versatile program that includes contact, calendar, notes, task, and journal tools all tightly integrated to give users quick access to vital information and fast, easy ways to share that information. You can arrange virtual conferences with NetMeeting, send Office documents through Outlook Mail, and save calendars as web pages and publish them to the Web. Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell is organized intuitively, beginning with a program overview examining Outlook's interface and structure along with setup and installation issues. The chapter on program insights delves deeper into the program, looking at data structures, forms, and categories. The second part of the book drills down into Outlook's individual components and their associated commands, and the last section covers some sophisticated connectivity and collaboration issues as well as file management and encryption. There are also some special sections devoted to working with VBA, using Outlook as an Exchange client, and exploring how Outlook works with Palm devices. This book covers:

• Program data structures, forms, and views
• Adaptive menus and toolbars
• Outlook's component interaction
• Connectivity and collaboration tools
• Importing and exporting
• Working with VBA
• Outlook as an Exchange client

The authors worked extensively with Microsoft engineers on the alpha/beta releases of Outlook 98, and bring to the book a wealth of knowledge and experience. They have provided a comprehensive task index, designed to speed up the process of locating important information as well as tips and tricks about the program. Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell is a must-read for any user who wants to get as much out of this software as possible without wasting time weeding through hundreds of pages of useless information.

Microsoft insiders say that Outlook will become a sort of omnipresent information center in the future, synthesizing data from many sources into a convenient display. Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell acknowledges that Outlook already is the main productivity tool for many users. The book gives a wonderfully detailed look at Outlook 2000, and it does a great job of showing (many undocumented) ways to customize the program, largely without having to know how to program it.

Though the book has some plain-vanilla information on how to bring about specific effects, it will also show you how the various components of Outlook interact with one another and how you can adjust them. This is the most valuable aspect of the book. Explanations of why you might want to customize Outlook in certain ways, plus some new ways to use the software, are also really useful. The book doesn't ask what Outlook can do; instead it asks, what can it do for you? The book's design is also very helpful: numbered tips contain nuggets of information that don't fit into the general flow of the text. The titles of these tips appear in a special index, so it's easy to turn directly to Tip 77, "Quick Swap Time Zones," for example. Altogether, this book is a model technical publication for the power user. --David Wall

Topics covered: Microsoft Outlook 2000 for power users, with emphasis on little-used features and customization. Tips and tricks address organizing and finding information, managing and editing e-mail, importing and exporting files, and interacting with Microsoft Exchange Server. The book also covers synchronizing Outlook data with Palm devices, introduces customization with VBA, and provides a complete interface reference.