[WinPartners] Outlook 2007 and Windows Mail Release Project Underway

[Deb Bowser]

Good day, 

IS&T, in collaboration with IT colleagues across campus, has officially
begun the Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Mail release project. Outlook
2007 is the latest version of the email client that is packaged with Office
2007 for the Windows platform.  Windows Mail, the email client that replaces
Outlook Express, is installed as part of Windows Vista Operating System.

Timeline:
-------------
IS&T anticipates availability and support for Outlook 2007 will be ready in
February 2007.  Windows Mail, the replacement for Outlook Express is part of
the new Vista Operating System.  Basic support for Windows Mail is
anticipated at a later time.

Microsoft Office 2007 and Vista media will be made available as soon as
possible to the Software Liaisons within Departments, Labs and Centers.  The
current estimate from Microsoft is that we could have media in hand by
February. 

The new Office 2007 user interface (UI) is a large change from previous
versions and users should anticipate a learning curve.  In addition to the
new (UI), the new document file formats in Office 07 are not compatible with
older versions of Office and should be considered before upgrading to
Outlook 2007 as part of the Office 2007 suite.  We highly recommend that you
work with your local IT staff to plan your transition and remember that they
too need time to learn Office 2007 in order to provide you support.

To find out whom your Software Liaison is, please visit:

Office Liaisons:
http://web.mit.edu/ist/services/software/msca-officeliaisons.html

Operating System Liaisons:
http://web.mit.edu/ist/services/software/msca-osliaisons.html

We will continue to work with DLC IT colleagues to evaluate Outlook 2007 and
Windows Mail in their various computing environments at MIT. If your DLC is
not currently enrolled in the Microsoft Campus Agreement at MIT and wishes
to do so, please send email to <liaison-opt at mit.edu>.

New Features of Outlook 2007
--------------------------------
- Instant Search function lets you quickly search through thousands of
messages.
- Attachment previewing allows you to view your attachments from within the
reading pane with only a single click.
- Support for exporting files to pdf and xps

To read more about these and other new features please see the "Microsoft
Office Outlook 2007" page: 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/FX100487751033.aspx


New Features of Windows Mail
----------------------------------
- Instant Search lets you quickly search through thousands of messages.
- Phishing filter analyzes e-mail to help detect these fraudulent links and
help protect you from these online scams.
- Junk mail filter is a built-in filter which automatically screens e-mail
to identify and separate junk e-mail.

To read more about these and other new features please see "Windows Vista:
Windows Mail Features":

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/forhome/mail.mspx

Known Issues
------------------
Oracle Connector for Outlook:
Currently, we do not have a version of Oracle Connector for Outlook (OCFO)
that functions with Outlook 2007 within the Windows XP and Vista
environment.  We will inform the community once a reliable version of the
connector becomes available.

More Information
-------------------
For additional information on the Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Mail
release projects, see the Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Windows Mail project
notebooks:

	http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/outlook2007

	http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/windowsmail


IS&T will communicate to the MIT community throughout the release project.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to participate in the
release of Microsoft Outlook 2007 or Windows Mail, please contact the
release team at outlook-release at mit.edu.

Cheers,
Deb Bowser for the Outlook Project Team
Team Leader - Software Release Team
Client Support Services
Information Services and Technology, MIT 
http://web.mit.edu/ist/swrt/

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