This is not an issue in Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 operating in Internet Mail Only mode. In IMO mode, you can hide or minimize the progress dialog that appears when you choose Tools | Send/Receive or click the Send/Receive button.
If you choose Tools | Send/Receive in Outlook 98 or 2000 in Corporate/Workgroup mode or in Outlook 97, Microsoft Outlook uses what's called a "modal" dialog box to indicate that it's getting messages. Access to all other Outlook functions is blocked. There are a couple of ways around this:
- Use Tools | Services to set up the Internet E-mail service to use a LAN connection. (If you are not actually connected to a LAN, Outlook will use the connection settings in Internet Explorer.) Then, in Tools | Options | Internet E-mail, check the box for Check my local network connection(s) for new mail every xx minute(s). For Outlook 97, you will first need to install the Internet Mail Enhancement Patch or Office 97 Service Release 1 or 2.