Outlook 2003 includes new features in many different areas. We will be adding more information to this page as we get to know the product better.

User Interface | Mail | Calendar | Contacts & Address Book | Infrastructure | Miscellaneous | More Information

User Interface

Outlook 2003 introduces the first major change in the user interface since Outlook 97. For details, see Managing the Microsoft Outlook 2003 Interface.

When a user first opens Outlook, the Favorite Folders list shows Inbox, Unread Mail, For Follow Up, and Sent Items. Unread Mail and For Follow Up are examples of the new “search folders” in Outlook 2003. These are virtual folders that stay updated automatically, similar to what you would see in Advanced Find. The Unread Mail search folder will show all unread messages in all mail folders. The For Follow-Up search folder shows all items flagged for follow up. Users can create new search folders using a dozen included templates or any search performed with the Find or Advanced Find features.

Mail

• Very effective junk mail filter. Also see:
  • Microsoft Outlook 2003 Spam Filter- Under the hood was removed from Mapilab.com due to legal issues.
• How to Use the Desktop Alerts Feature in Outlook 2003
• Rights management for email messages and Office document attachments — A Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer is available to allow non-Outlook 2003 users to open rights-managed messages. Also see Support WebCast Using Information Rights Management with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
• Autocomplete address suggestions listed by frequency of use, not alphabetical order
• Ability to expand distribution lists before sending a message, so you can remove a name
• Better message threading in conversation views
• No indenting on reply messages; horizontal line used as separator instead
• Mail folders can show either a total count of message or the count of unread messages
• Desktop new mail alert shows subject, sender, and first 255 characters of text; you can delete or flag from the alert itself
• User-configurable “read as plain text” option
• Blocks external Internet content in HTML messages
• Speed improvement for POP mail downloads
• Restores the ability to send plain text messages in quoted-printable format with no hard returns at the ends of lines

Also see:

• Demo: Organize your e-mail more easily than ever
• Demo: Flag it, file it, find it fast in Outlook
• Information About the Safe Senders Option in Outlook
• Fighting Spam with Exchange and Outlook 2003
• Prevent Junk E-Mail Messages with Outlook 2003

Calendar

Click the image below to see a larger screen shot of side-by-side calendars.

• Checkboxes to show other calendars side-by-side with your own Calendar folder.



• Read-only viewing of calendars in SharePoint Team Services webs
• Feature to create a “Meeting Workplace” in SharePoint Team Services and link it with a meeting request
• New rule to send an alert to your mobile device when a meeting is updated

Also see:

• Demo: Double your time in Outlook
• Demo: Work together in a Meeting Workspace
• How to Use Meeting Workspace in Outlook 2003

Contacts & Address Book

• Show picture in contact form
• Resizable Address Book dialog
• Read-only viewing of contacts in SharePoint Team Services webs
• Expand personal distribution lists before sending a message

Infrastructure

• “Cached Exchange” mode maintains a local replica of the mailbox and Favorites folders automatically, adjusting data retrieval to bandwidth; see:
  • How to Force Outlook to Resolve Proxy Addresses and Custom Properties in Cached Mode
  • Search Folders Are Missing in Outlook Web Access
• 50-70% reduction in network traffic when running against Exchange “Titanium” with “cached Exchange” mode
• Increase in maximum size of PST/OST files to a theoretical 33TB; administrator can control size with a policy. New file format also supports Unicode; see:
  • Outlook 2003 Stops Responding When You Accept a Meeting Request
• Status indicators — in minutes and megabytes — for downloads from Exchange
• Support for RPC over HTTP when running against Exchange “Titanium,” eliminating the need for VPNs; see:
  • Outlook 2003 Cannot Connect Over the Internet to Exchange Server 2003
  • Configuration Options for the Exchange Over the Internet Feature in Outlook 2003

Miscellaneous

• Simplified Rules Wizard dialog
• Improved handling of items in conflict
• “Live Attachments” feature that allows people to collaborate on a document sent as a file attachment, but actually stored on a SharePoint Team Services server; see
  • Demo: All write now, team up in a Document Workspace
  • Description of Live Attachments in Outlook 2003

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Exchange Server 2003

Last reviewed on Dec 4, 2011