Microsoft Office 2013: Outlook review

Inline Replies

The traditional way of replying to an email is to hit the Reply button and compose your message in the new window that opens. With Inline Replies, you can now reply to (or forward) a message from within the Reading Pane itself; no new windows will pop up. If you have Lync, you can start a Lync IM conversation too. When you click somewhere else before sending out your inline reply (for example, to read another email), the reply gets saved as a draft automatically. What's neat is that instead of you diving into the draft folder to look for it later, just take a glance at the message list – messages with unsent drafts are marked with a '[Draft]' tag. Speaking of the message list, you can use commands to quickly flag, delete or mark messages as read or unread.

Social Connectors

Outlook embrace social further by integrating the Outlook Social connector deeper into the app, offering built-in support for Facebook and LinkedIn. So unlike Outlook 2007 and 2010, no add-on or plug-in is needed. Social network details also sync with the People Card, which basically consolidated all the details about a contact in one place, from telephone numbers and work address to social media updates and availability. From the card, you can do things like give the person a call, send an instant message, or schedule a meeting. The People card is found at the People section (formerly called Contacts) just above the status bar at the bottom of the screen, alongside other main Outlook elements like Mail, Calendar, and Tasks.

Peeks

While the prominent placement of the above-mentioned Mail, Calendar, People, and Task modes makes switching between them easier, a lot of times, we didn't see the need to thanks to a feature called Peeks. As the name implies, Peeks lets you peek at something without opening up a new screen. You can take a peek at your schedule, a specific appointment, or details about someone over ta mode, and a little window that contains the information will pop up. Yes, it's hardly earth shattering, but believe us, a couple of seconds saved here are there tend to work out to be fairly substantial at the end of the day.

MailTips & Policy Tips

We love MaiTips as it offers us real-time information about the messages we're composing as well as the recipients. For example, it informs us if a recipient if out of the office, if a message is too large for the recipient's inbox, and if an address is invalid. MailTips in the new Outlook now also monitors if your email makes any mention of an attachment. If it does and you don't include the attachment, a reminder will pop up before you can send the email. On a similar note, companies will appreciate the new Policy Tips (requires Microsoft Exchange). Outlook will notify you if it detects that your email contains information that violates the company's information-handling policy.