Outlook Express vs. Outlook –
 Which should you choose?
By Dave Paradi

Most PC’s today come with Microsoft’s Outlook Express e-mail software pre-loaded and configured for use right away, so many people start using it as their default e-mail program. But the Microsoft Office suite that many people use contains Outlook, another program that manages e-mail. Which one should you use?

In general, the free Outlook Express should be used for home use and Outlook should be used for business use, from home based business to larger enterprises. Here are four reasons for my suggestion.

Outlook has more applications built-in
The Outlook Express software is really an e-mail package. It will allow you to keep an address book, but it is not robust enough to be a true contact management software tool. The Outlook package is designed as a Personal Information Management (PIM) tool. It contains the e-mail functionality, as well as a full contact application, task list and calendar. All of these tools are integrated with each other, making them easier to use together. For example, you can schedule a meeting with someone else and it will update your calendar and send an e-mail to that person notifying them of the request for a meeting.

Outlook can synchronize better with a Handheld device
Many mobile professionals are now carrying a mobile computing device, whether it is a Palm, Handspring Visor or Pocket PC. To avoid double entry and overwriting of data, it is critical that your mobile device synchronizes your data with your computer. Most synchronization tools are built for Outlook but not Outlook Express because many people rely on the calendar, contacts and task list data more than the e-mail data. It also allows Outlook to function as the primary data source so that if you lose the data on your handheld (which has happened to me), you have an original source.

Outlook has a more robust E-mail feature
While both packages will handle basic e-mail functions, Outlook is more robust than Outlook Express. For example, Outlook contains such features as the ability to send a message at a specific time in the future, allows more complex e-mail signatures (which can be a great marketing tool) and allows you to set up more complex e-mail rules that can help deal with the barrage of e-mail we all get on a daily basis.

Outlook offers more MAPI compliant features
MAPI stands for Messaging Application Program Interface and it is the way that other programs interface with the e-mail application to offer new features. Outlook Express offers basic MAPI features where you have the ability to send e-mail from an application such as Word or Excel. Outlook extends the functionality and allows you to do things such as mail-merge to e-mail so you can create personalized e-mails to a group of people using the mail-merge features of Word.

If you want to see a full comparison of the two products, go to this Word document that Microsoft has on their web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/evaluation/compare.doc

When you get your new PC pre-loaded with Microsoft Outlook Express, consider these points before you go ahead and set it up as the default e-mail application.

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© MMIII Dave Paradi

Dave Paradi’s Think Outside the Slide™ approach helps presenters get results by showing them how to quickly create effective PowerPoint presentations. He is the co-author of “Guide to PowerPoint”, part of the Prentice Hall Series in Advanced Business Communication. He offers a free PowerPoint e-course, newsletter and articles on his web site at www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.