Read your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds in Outlook. Adding RSS feeds to Outlook 2007 is even easier than adding new mail accounts. Feeds appear as folders within your Outlook Personal Folders, allowing you to work with them like any other kind of message you receive in Outlook. Figure C shows an RSS feed.

FIGURE C

Subscribe to and read RSS feeds from within Office Outlook 2007. Click picture for a larger image.

Exactly how this feature will impact the providers of RSS-reader add-ins remains to be seen. And, don't forget, you can read OutlookPower's RSS feed at http://www.outlookpower.com/feeds/newsDetails/rss20/feed.xml.

Other shiny new changes
One of my favorite new features is Instant Search. This tool makes searching a viable way to find information in Outlook. Enter the word or phrase you want to search for, and Outlook quickly returns all the items in the current folder containing that word or phrase. You can also configure Instant Search to automatically search all Outlook folders instead of the current one.

Going even further, you can expand the Search pane to focus your search by including relevant criteria. Figure D shows the expanded Search pane.

FIGURE D

Instant Search brings both fast Outlook searches and additional search criteria when you need them. Click picture for a larger image.

Microsoft is working to help stem the flood of garbage that flows into our Inboxes. To help with this problem, Office Outlook 2003 introduced the junk mail filter. Now Office Outlook 2007 gives us anti-phishing technology and E-mail Postmark. Anti-phishing technology tries to keep you from divulging personal information by warning you when Outlook thinks a message contains phishing or otherwise malicious content. It will also convert the message to plain text to disable hyperlinks.

E-mail Postmarking is a technique that basically makes it harder (and therefore slightly slower) for Outlook to send mail messages. Individuals sending normal quantities of email shouldn't notice the slowdown, but spammers who send thousands of messages an hour should feel some pain. The mail program that receives the message can be designed to recognize the postmark and therefore the message is less likely to be caught in Outlook's junk mail filters. Time will tell how effective this approach is.

If you will use Outlook 2007 at work, you may also encounter information rights management (IRM), managed email folders, and other security enhancements that require Exchange Server 2007 or Windows Rights Management Services (RMS). Your company will provide you with more information on these when and if they implement the features.

As you can see, Outlook 2007 is getting a significant makeover in Office 2007. The changes will take a little getting used to, but, so far, we think you'll like your new Outlook.

Product availability and resources To download the beta, visit http://www.microsoft.com/Office/Preview/default.mspx. OutlookPower's RSS 2.0 feed is at http://www.outlookpower.com/feeds/newsDetails/rss20/feed.xml.

Bill Mann teaches and writes about Microsoft Office Outlook. For more information on Outlook 2003 or 2007, visit http://www.living-with-outlook.com, or write to him at bill@living-with-outlook.com.