Another exciting feature involves calendaring-Exchange users will be able to display co-workers calendars side-by-side in their calendar window, with each person's calendar in a different color.

Two things that are gone from Outlook 11 are Favorites from the menu bar (and Web browsing) as well as file system browsing. While not many people used either of these features, I hope that the new features in Outlook 11 will make the loss of these features more palatable to those who do use them.

This is just a small subset of the changes you'll find in the next version of Outlook. Next week I'll mention some of the new features you'll find in the next version of Exchange server, code named Titanium, and it's Outlook Web Access (OWA) client. Until then, I'll give you a couple of hints on what to expect: OWA-spell check and an interface almost identical the new Outlook interface.

Diane Poremsky is the president of CDOLive LLC and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She's coauthor of Word 2002: The Complete Reference (Osborne, 2001) and Beginning Visual Basic 6 Application Development (for Wrox Press). For questions or suggestions for future columns, write her at outlook@cdolive.com.