Outlook 2007 - Favorite Features

I've been using Outlook full time for about 7 years now, and I must say, Microsoft keeps adding on very cool features that make my life easier. Outlook controls my life in terms of scheduling my calendar, keeping tabs on tasks, organizing contacts and, of course, email. I'm also a Blackberry user with the Enterprise Server running, so the integration into my phone is seamless (thank you RIM).

Each time MS has come out with a new Outlook, I've found a few features that make it worth the upgrade. For 2003, for example, it was the new grouping fetures that allowed you to collapse whole groups of mail, the tileing of calendars and the right hand reading pane.

Here are my favorites in 2007 which I feel make it worth the money to upgrade:

Search - Search has always been clunky in Outlook. You enter a term and wait while your disk thrashes. Now the search uses pre-indexed catalogs it creates automagically when your machine is idle. I had formerly been using Google Desktop Search to search email, but have found that the new built in search is lighter on my machine and yields relevant results quickly.

Applying Catagories - I always liked the idea of catagorizing contacts, calendar items and tasks into groups like Personal and Business. The only problem was it was pretty tedious requiring you to open the list or remember verbatium how you named the lists. Now Outlook keeps a drop down list when you're in an item that is populated with the most used categories. It also has a right-click -> categories ability when you're viewing a list. I'm finally using categories for all items except email.

Cached Exchange Enhancements - I'm not sure how many people use cached Exchange mode, but for my enterprise, it's a necessity. Cached Exchange mode is a passive way of using Outlook, where it polls your Exchange server at regular intervals and doesn't hang if there is a disruption communicating with the Exchange environment. It also allows you to work on email offline. In 2003, the polling was locked at 60 seconds and delays on receiving emails was noticeable, as the Blackberry would always beat Outlook on new items. In 2007, it appears this has been circumvented and it feels more connected. I don't even notice an interval anymore, which is a nice change.

RSS Integration - It always seemed natural that RSS would just be embedded into Outlook as most RSS Readers feel like it. I understand that in 2003, when the last Office product hit, RSS hadn't been widely excepted, so there was no way to get RSS into Outlook without a 3rd party. I used News Gator for a while, but i abandoned it when it asked to be purchased. I like their implementation. It's not in the foreground and doesn't notify you. Rather it's just there when you want to look at it. The IE7 integration is good as well and produces a seamless subscription process.

That's all the big ones I can think of now. There are other enhancements that don't wow me too much. The interface is light blue and easy on the eyes I guess, but I'm a fan of the rigid classic Windows theme. Also, there's a to-do bar that would be good if it didn't consume a large amount of screen real estate.