Shoutbox

What are the pros and cons of each? I always used and use OE for email. Outlook seems to be a heavier program, but is it worth the move?

Outlook has more updates and is continued to be updated, it also has some features which OE doesn't.  I think it depends on your machine and how much you like your set-up with OE already.  Personally I love Outlook 2007 and it is heaps better than 2002 which I upgraded from (all this is my personal experience), but it is heavier to begin with, just like anything with more features.  If you are happy with OE then keep with it, but if you are looking for that bit more then try out Outlook.  I think microsoft still has a "try out office 2007 products" kinda thing on the office site still which you can try out online before having to make the switch over (it will run slow in that because of it not being the actual program).  Just some things for you to contemplate.

What I do with OE is the usual stuff: create custom message rules, custom folders, block senders, address book, and synch some webmail accounts like Hotmail. What else can I do with Outlook?

Outlook Express is a basic email client and Usenet news reader.

Outlook does not have news reading capability, but adds Calendar, Notes, Tasks and Journal.  It is also a more advanced and configurable email client than OE. 

One of the things I like about Outlook is the ease of backing up your data.  Outlook stores everything in a single "personal folders" file, location of which you can choose.  As long as you back up this one file, you will have everything (old email and other data) except your account settings. That is a huge improvement over OE, which stores data in multiple files in a hard-to-find location, below several levels of hidden folders.

If the only thing you want is basic email, then you will find both to be about the same, although Outlook will let you make more advanced rules, and give you additional options in some other areas.  Outlook's "bonus" is the various productivity features mentioned above (which you may or may not care about), while OE offers email and newsgroups in the same client (again, you may or may not care about that).

I was only referring to the mail capability of Outlook, knowing that it has other features like Calendar, Notes, etc. If not using the other stuff, then I think I'm better off with OE as it uses less resources and is faster for its purpose, plus I'm not stuck to owning MS Office as it's always built into the OS.

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Originally posted by alegator
Outlook does not have news reading capability

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Ehm.. Yes it does.. ?! 2003 version at least..

My point of view : if you're not using the calendar and other options, OE will provide you with everything you need, so stay with it, you'll get a faster response and a better performance, although it could be possible that some mail features might be missing, but until you find any that you really need that aren't there, stick with OE.

quote:

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Originally posted by alegator
I was only referring to the mail capability of Outlook, knowing that it has other features like Calendar, Notes, etc. If not using the other stuff, then I think I'm better off with OE as it uses less resources and is faster for its purpose, plus I'm not stuck to owning MS Office as it's always built into the OS.

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