Microsoft released Office 2000's Service Pack 3 last week and it should come as no surprise that it has more fixes for Outlook than any of the other Office programs. Out of the nearly 100 fixes for Outlook, one of the most important changes this SP makes to Outlook involves the Email Security feature which was added to SP2. SP3 gives Outlook 2000 the same capability to unblock attachments that Outlook 2002 users have. You can either edit the registry or use Ken Slovak's Attachment Options add-in, which now supports Outlook 2000 SP3. Look for Attachment Options at http://www.slovaktech.com or use the instructions in http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318515 to edit the registry.

Other issues fixed with SP3 include reminders firing later than expected, a problem publishing Free/Busy information after changing the URL it's being published to, and pictures included in HTML formatted email that didn't print with the email message. Several issues involving Outlook in Internet Only mode and IMAP accounts are also corrected in SP3, including Outlook's inability to retain the mail account password. Programmers will find quite a few issues fixed as well. The complete list of Outlook issues that are fixed is in the KB article 326668.

Requirements for installing Office 2000 SP3 You need to have SP1/1a installed in order to upgrade to SP3, but you are not required to install SP2, since all the SP2 fixes are included in SP3. You'll also need to have your Office or Outlook CD handy-you'll be asked to put it in the drive during the installation of SP3. If you used a network installation point to install Outlook or Office, do not apply SP3 unless told to by your administrator.

Where to get Office 2000 SP3 There are three ways to get Office 2000 SP3, go to Office Products download site (http://office.microsoft.com/ProductUpdates/) and let it scan your computer and download the files you need. If you'd rather download the file, go to Office Downloads (http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/). The file is about 13 megs and makes it easier to install SP3 on more than one machine. You can also order it on CD from the Office Resource Kit site (http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/journ/o2ksp3cd.html). The CD includes SP1a.

For more information about Office 2000 SP3, see the Overview of Office 2000 Service Pack 3 at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326585, for Outlook specific information, see http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2000sp3.htm and http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326668.

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.