The reason why am writing this review is because I have identified a small issue/bottleneck in MouthShut. If you comment on a review, the people may not even read it if they have already rated the same. A members review of Eudora prompted me to write this one.
Scope of this review
This review is not going to talk about how mails are sent and what is Outlook, its going to churn out some of the main features of MS Outlook that I like
Microsoft Outlook as a Mail Client
Perhaps the most compelling reason in using MS Outlook would be that its from the Microsoft stable and you are working mostly on Microsoft Operating Systems. But believe me, Outlook is the most efficient mail client I have come across.
Major Features of Outlook
1.Multiple Account Support
It has multiple account support and can even configure your Hotmail account. I have configured my Outlook to get my official mail (Corporate Account), personal mail (VSNL) account and Hotmail account (which are mainly junk)
2.Flexible Views
You can view your mails grouped by the sender, or the subject or date. You can view the folder as a list as well.
3.Rules wizard
Helps you to move mail from a group or a person automatically to specific folders. You don’t have to manually drag and drop MouthShut mails to MouthShut mails folder!!!
4.Auto archival facility
If the mailbox becomes too big, MS Outlook automatically moves it to archive folder. You can specify after what period archival has to be done.
5.JunkMail/Adult blocking
Blocks/Deletes junk-mails based on a definition specified by you. Specify different coloring for these mails for easy identification and removal.
6.Address/Alias Management
Creation of distribution list and contact management support. Distribution list is a set of people to whom you send mail together. You can specify alias for you friends to identify them easily.
7.Contact Mgmt & Phone Dialer
There is a comprehensive contact management support. Almost all the details of contacts can be captured and stored. Eg Home/Off/HP number, two email id’s, full address etc. You can call up any contact directly using MS (If that facility is available for you). You can initiate NetMeeting(Will write a review about it soon) with a person by clicking on online-collaboration.
8.Browser integration
You can type a address and browse using Outlook Express. You can see you incoming mails on the left while you are browsing. Normal email alerts like ’Beeps’ and message boxes are also available.
9.Expedia Integration
Expedia is the online Maps/Utilities portal, where you can books cars, flights, hotels and everything else under the sun.
Its very impressive, check it out. Go to contacts, select a contact and click on find map, and it will show a detailed map of the city/country of the contact, click on hotel details and you can immediately book a hotel room (Available in XP and needs Expedia Online, but its a great option)
10.Find And Advanced Find
If you are a person who has the habit of keeping all the mails you get, this option is essentiatly a life saver. If you want to find a particular mail from someone, and you have forgotten the person’s name and you vaguely remember the context of the mail, just invoke find/advance find and type in the word, eg if the mail was about New years ever, instruct Outlook to find all mails that have ’New year’ in the subject or message body. And, in no time you can get the mail you were looking for.
There are zillions of other features and I know that I am not writing a user manual for Outlook (Kidding). If time permits, I will edit this review and put in some more information.
For a Outlook user like me (Using it for the past 4 years) I don’t find any advantage is using Eudora. Maybe cos I have not used Eudora, but the thing is I don’t want to use it. Outlook gives me what ever I need/expect from a Mail client.
Rgds
RR