An Inside Look at Outlook Express 5.0

Neither application will be ready for prime time, sources said... but, of the two, Outlook Express is furthest along and is expected to be made available sometime later this summer. The major upgrade to Internet Explorer, which is said to share a unified HTML standard with the next generation of Netscape's browser, is much further behind and is not expected to ship to customers until the Fall.

And while Apple has a couple of engineers hard at work integrating an updated version of Claris E-mailer into the next generation of AppleWorks, which is expected to be announced at this week's Macworld Expo and will ship on Apple's Consumer Portable, Microsoft's Macintosh team is planning to capitalize by producing the most powerful and feature-filled Macintosh e-mail client available to date.

Version 5.0 of Outlook Express will pack a punch with new features such as Junk Mail Filters, Mailing List Managers, new Setup Assistants, and a dazzling new interface that is incomparable with anything else out there.

Interface

The developers on the Macintosh Outlook Express team have wrapped the new version in a fully Mac OS 8.5 compliant interface, and then some. The new version features a seamlessly integrated toolbar that contains pull-down menus for new e-mail messages and address book entries, single-click options to reply to and flag messages, and more. Additionally, a "Send & Receive" pull-down menu, also integrated into the toolbar, will allow users to easily retrieve mail from selected accounts, individually, instead of being forced into checking all e-mail accounts simultaneously.

Colorful 3-D icons are now fashionably displayed in the folder list as well as the message listings. The template for a new e-mail message has also seen some drastic changes. New mail messages now feature an integrated toolbar and new pop-up window for adding recipient addresses — ensuring that they are added properly. A "Find" file function embedded in the "attachments" section of a new mail message will take advantage of Sherlock II, which will ship from Apple as part of Sonata (Mac OS 8.7) later this year.

Account Management and Preferences Simplified

As of version 5.0, Microsoft has ripped account management preferences out of the general preferences dialog and created a handy account manager, not to mention that the new application is also Apple Location Manager aware. The account manager features a Mac OS 8.5 tabbed interface and also accompanies a user's news and LDAP (people) servers.

For users who are not so computer-friendly, Microsoft now provides an e-mail setup assistant, which closely resembles Apple's Mac OS Setup Assistant, to help step them through the process of configuring new e-mail accounts. News and LDAP setup assistants are also provided.

Some powerful new e-mail options added since the previous release of Outlook Express include the ability to partially retrieve messages that are larger than a certain size, delete messages from the mail server once they have been deleted locally from the user's computer, and re-retrieve all messages that have been left on the mail server regardless of whether they have already been retrieved.

Finally, one long-awaited mail option allows the user to select an individual default mail signature for each account.

Junk Mail Filters

One of the new features of Outlook Express 5.0 that is sure to be widely accepted by the industry is a new Junk Mail Filter option. Accessible via the "Tools" menu, the configuration panel for the feature is quite simple. All the filtering work has actually been done for the user. All one must do is simply select a sensitivity level. If a user has Junk Mail Filtering set to "medium" sensitivity and is still receiving unfiltered spam, that user will be able to bump the filtering sensitivity bar up to the next level.

For messages that fit the description of junk mail, Outlook Express offers preferences to automatically display these messages as having been read (dimmed) or highlight them a certain dull color. Additionally, options exist to perform an AppleScript on such messages, though, surprisingly, the development team has not given the user the power to apply a user-defined Outlook Express Mail rule of sorts.

New "Rules" Manager & Hotmail Integration

Speaking of mail rules, Outlook Express 5.0 will also accompany a handy "Rules Manager," which will effectively tie POP, IMAP, Hotmail, News and Outgoing mail rules into one tabbed dialog.

And yes, the rumors are true: starting with version 5.0, Microsoft will be closely integrating their Hotmail e-mail service into Mac Outlook Express. Users will be able to send and retrieve messages from their hotmail account, and manage incoming messages as if they came from a normal POP account.

Schedules

Scheduling connections and other forms of mail-related actions will be another high point of Outlook Express 5.0. The new version will allow users to schedule such actions as checking mail, sending mail, executing AppleScripts, deleting mail, and checking news, sources added.

The user can specify certain times to perform these actions or make them repeat after certain time intervals. Additional options will allow scheduled actions to execute when the user launches or quits Outlook Express. Users can also create schedule-actions to be run manually.

Mailing List Manager

With e-mail mailing lists becoming more popular, especially for Macintosh users, the folks at Microsoft have also built a handy Mailing List Manager right into Outlook Express. The new management software allows the user to color-code and sort messages from each of their mailing lists.

Additionally, users will be able to add a predefined subject prefix to each mailing list message and override the default reply behavior set by the mailing list. Users who subscribe in digest mode on mailing lists to avoid miscellaneous e-mails throughout the day will find the "burst digest into individual messages" option quite handy at the end of the day.

Additional Features

The new version of Outlook Express features dozens of additional features that will make managing mail a much more pleasurable experience — too many to detail in this report. Additionally, the application is a fully-capable newsgroup client, with support for Directory Services such as LDAP (people servers).

There is no question that Outlook Express has all but surpassed the much-loved Claris E-mailer, which has gone unupdated for over a year. About the only Claris E-mailer functionality that Outlook Express still lacks is the ability to log onto a user's AOL account and download e-mail. But according to sources, AOL granted Claris permission to implement this feature, and since then, has denied others permission to do the same.

There is a lot to love, but it still remains to be seen how stable the final version of Outlook Express will be, and how much RAM it will consume.