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Outlook 2003 fights the spam battle

David Coursey AnchorDesk

Published: 22 Oct 2003 10:25 BST

This feature, however, also removes graphical elements from newsletters like AnchorDesk, as well as from my daily New York Times, BBC News, and other image-laden emails I want to receive. Adding these senders to the safe senders list, which can be done from within the email or preview pane, allows the images to come through.

Besides the new spam filter, which replaces the ineffective filtering Microsoft had been using for several years, there are other reasons to consider an Outlook upgrade as well:

The 2003 version manages to display more content than earlier versions in the same amount of screen real estate. This is a time-saver and thus a productivity improvement. Yes, the screen is busier-looking and may take a little getting used to, but the usability improvements become evident in a short time.

The reading pane has been improved, allowing many messages to be read and responded to without actually opening them in a separate window.

It is now much easier to flag messages you want to work with later. For high-volume mail users this keeps messages from getting lost.

A search folder has been added, allowing you to easily see things like all your flagged messages. You can create custom search folders, which automatically perform the search in the background, allowing you to quickly view collections of messages selected by your chosen criteria.

Taken together, these new features dramatically improve Outlook's usability for people who receive and send a lot of email. If you're one of these people and the spam filter hasn't already sold you on the upgrade, these features should.

Next Monday, I will talk more about Microsoft's war on spam and the role Office plays in it, including more details on how the spam filter actually works. In later columns, I hope to address the other programs in the Office system and what new features have been added to their 2003 versions. And we'll wrap up with a report on my experiences with Microsoft's 2003 version of its Small Business Server, which I really like.