Although the Outlook Personal Address Book (PAB) was replaced by Contacts in Outlook 1997, Microsoft allowed the two to co-exist for ten years. Now, PAB will no longer be supported. All PAB entries will be migrated to Contacts unless users manually intervene to prevent it.
The ability to convert a meeting request into an online meeting using the "this is an online meeting list" in Outlook 2007 no longer supports older technologies. These includes Microsoft Windows NetMeeting, Microsoft Exchange Conferencing and Windows Media Services. Microsoft recommends Microsoft Office Live Meeting as an alternative.
Outlook modified some smart rules to help facilitate meeting plans. A
person who creates a meeting no longer can change the time or location
of the meeting without sending an update. An organizer no longer can
cancel a meeting or send a cancellation request without sending an
update.
Advisors no longer can forward an out-of-date meeting request. If you
attempt to forward such a request, Outlook automatically sends the most
recent copy of the updated meeting. This behavior prohibits the
inadvertent delivery of incorrect information to others.
The new To-Do Bar has replaced the Task Pad. You can no longer see the
Task Pad in the calendar or the Task Pad menu options on the View menu.
As mentioned earlier, flags have been changed. If you previously used
colored flags in the mail view, this function will no longer be
available to you. You can, however, use the new color categories
functionality instead.
The importing of ACT! and Schedule+ information is not supported in
Outlook 2007, although you can still import ACT! Information into
Microsoft Office Business Contact Manager.
In summary, Outlook has undergone many changes, but most of them have
been for the better. Advisors will generally be pleased with this
latest version.
Joel P. Bruckenstein, publisher of
Virtual Office News (www.virtualofficenews.com) and an expert in
applied technology for financial services professionals, can be
contacted at [email protected].