WARNING: Office Outlook 2007 is still in beta. This means that things can and will change before the final product ships. This article describes the product as it stands today, but there's no guarantee that everything will be the same in the commercially released product.

User interface changes
You've probably heard about all the user interface changes in the new version of Office. Outlook 2007 features many of those common changes, along some of its own. The To-Do Bar now appears in the Mail view shown in Figure A, as well as in most other views. The To-Do Bar combines your Outlook Calendar, upcoming appointments, tasks, and flagged mail in one place, and helps you keep on track with the things you need to get done each day.

FIGURE A

The new Office Outlook 2007 Mail view with the new To-Do Bar. Click picture for a larger image.

Creating new content in Outlook (such as mail messages or appointments) brings you face-to-face with the biggest Office 2007 user interface change, the Ribbon. The Ribbon is meant to make using common features of Office applications easier and more intuitive. About the only place where you can create a new Outlook item and NOT see the Ribbon is a Note. Figure B shows a new mail message with the Ribbon.

FIGURE B

The Ribbon makes it easy to find the commands you need. Click picture for a larger image.

Some other user interface changes include:

• The Office button is located in the top left corner of the Ribbon and gives you quick access to the most common file and system commands.
• Category colors, which let you color-code any Outlook item, allow you to pick out certain kinds of items at a glance.
• Attachment Preview lets you view attachments with a single click right within Outlook.

New and improved ways to connect
A Web-based calendar is a great way for groups to keep coordinated. Outlook 2007 supports standard Internet calendars, allowing you to subscribe to a group's Internet calendar and keep track of what's going on. You can also publish an Internet calendar yourself, either as a static snapshot of your calendar, or a dynamic one that automatically changes as your schedule does.

Turn your Contacts into electronic business cards you can share with others. Create a custom electronic business card and pass that along to your contacts to make yourself more easily identifiable in their crowded Contacts folder.