The user interface

Let us first see what we find when we open “Outlook 2007”.  At the top we have the “Menu bar”. From the menu, we can operate all the features that Outlook offers us through drop-down menus.  Below that we have the “Toolbar”. The buttons in the “Toolbar” change depending on the application chosen in the “Navigation Panel”.  As you all probably know, Outlook 2007 is more than just a program that sends and receives emails. We can find all the different programs (“Agenda”, “Contacts”, “Tasks”, “Notes”) in the “Navigation Panel”  On the right side of “Outlook” 2007 application window, we have the “TaskBar” and below it we find the “StatusBar”.

When you want to read an e-mail you received, or want to see your calendar, they do not appear in the same window. So they made sure that we can minimize and maximize both ‘panels’. Just double-click on the right or left pointing arrows at the top of the “Navigation” and “Task Bar” (1 – 2).

If the Navigation Pane is minimized, you will still be able to navigate between the various programs of “Outlook” 2007 by clicking on the available buttons.

If you wish to maximize the panel, just double-click on the left or right pointing arrows again.

By default, the Task bar will be minimized. In the task bar, we find the calendar where we can create various appointments and tasks for a day.

The ribbon

Those of us who worked with other applications from the Office 2007 might wonder whether “Outlook” 2007 has the “Ribbon” or not.
But yes, all you have to do is just make a new object.  With a new object, I mean a new e-mail, a new task, a new appointment to your calendar, a new contact or a new note.

As an example, I create a new e-mail.
I select “Email” in the navigation pane and click the “New” button in the toolbar.
This opens a new email message.
As in other applications of Office 2007, we find the “Office Button” on the top left next to the “Quick Access” toolbar, under which we find the Ribbon.

The ribbon, depending on the new object that we make, is divided into several tabs.

And depending on the selected tab, we find several command buttons, divided into different groups.

To discuss about all these buttons, different tabs and different objects, seems a hopeless and unnecessary task, since many of these exist in any Office Application.

It seems very unlikely that anyone who works with “Outlook” 2007, or wants to work, has never heard things like, for example the “Bold” or “Left / Right Alignment”, and thier purpose.

To the bottom right of certain groups, there is a
slanted arrow and when you click this, it opens a dialog with more options.

Under certain buttons, there is a downward pointing arrow. When you click this button a drop-down menu with more options appears.

For example, when we click on the downward pointing arrow under the “Follow Up” button, a drop-down menu with appears with a number of options.

 

When we click on the downward pointing arrow under “Spelling” button, there will be a drop-down menu which includes a “thesaurus”.

You will see plenty of options.

The “Quick Access” toolbar

On the top left we find the Office 2007 Office Button.
When we click on this button we have access to the most used features in “Outlook” 2007, example “New”, “Open” and “Save” and “Print”. This pretty much replaces the “File” in previous versions of “Outlook”.

We also have the “Quick Access” toolbar.
The “Quick Access” toolbar gives us the opportunity for a one click command.

The “Quick Access” toolbar cannot be removed from the screen.
However, one can change the position of this tool bar:
1. You can place it above the ribbon, which is the default setting, or
2. You can place it under the ribbon.
In order to place “Quick Access”toolbar under the “Ribbon”, right click on the “Ribbon” or on the “Quick Access” toolbar, and choose the options “The Quick Access Toolbar below the” Ribbon” from the drop-down menu.
To undo the procedure select “Quick Access over the ribbon” to place it back.

By default, the “Quick Access” toolbar has three buttons: Save, Undo and Redo.
“Quick Access” is the only toolbar that we can customize in Microsoft “Outlook” 2007.
By clicking on the downward pointing arrow next to the toolbar we can add commands.

The most used commands appear in a drop-down list.
If you want to add a command to the “Quick Access” toolbar, then click the command from the list. You will see a checkmark next to the command in the list and its added to this toolbar.
If you want to remove a command from the “Quick Access” toolbar, click it again on the command in the list, or right click on the command in the toolbar, and select “Remove from Quick Access Toolbar”.
If you want to add a command that is not on the list, click on “More Commands …”.
This opens the “Options for Outlook” dialog in the “Edit” tab:
All available commands in “Outlook” can be found in these lists.
The commands are divided into categories. Click the downward pointing arrow to choose another category from the drop-down list box “Choose command:”.
Select the command in the right pane, and click the “Add” button.
To remove a command, select the command in the right column, and click the “Remove” button.
By clicking on the arrows above and below you can change the location of the command in the Quick Access Toolbar.

But all this is the same for each Office 2007 application, so let’s see what else is new in “Outlook” 2007.

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