What You Can Do with Outlook in Office 2011 for Mac

Outlook 2011 is the productivity application within Office 2011 for Mac that provides e-mail, calendar, contact manager, task, and notes taking tools to help you stay organized. Integration with Messenger and Communicator enables you to be aware of the presence of your colleagues and associates.

Outlook is the premier Microsoft Exchange client on the Mac. Microsoft Outlook for Mac replaces Microsoft Entourage and continues forward with these features:

• E-mail: Supports IMAP, POP, and Exchange protocols. Protocols are just a way in which e-mail is handled by the mail server, and unless you’re an administrator, you won’t ever need to know how these work

  
  

  Internet service providers usually offer two different kinds of service: POP and IMAP. At one time, POP was the dominant method, but IMAP is recommended now if you have a choice. Here’s a brief explanation of the difference:

  
  
  
  

  • IMAP: Configured to keep your mail inbox on the provider’s server. You can create subfolders on the server to store mail in folders, such as read mail, deleted messages, junk mail, or any folder you want. The advantage of IMAP is that you can connect to the server from various devices. Your message list appears the same from any device, such as your iPod or cellphone, your computer at work, or your laptop. Your e-mail account has the same messages available, regardless of what device you use, no matter where you connect.

    
    
  
  

  • POP: Usually configured to download e-mail messages to your local computer and delete them from the server right away. This option is fine if you have only one computer and one location. Although you can set POP to leave the messages on the server, in general, you run the risk of accidentally deleting a wanted message.

    
    
  
  
  
  



• Calendars: Supports W3C standard calendar protocol and Microsoft Exchange calendar protocol. These are again various ways in which calendars are configured.

  
  



• Contacts: Supports W3C standard vCard protocol and Microsoft Exchange calendar protocol. If you don’t want to get too much into this protocol stuff, just be happy that Outlook handles so many of them!

  
  



• Tasks: A built-in task manager with calendar tie-in.

  
  



• Notes: A built-in notes manager.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-you-can-do-with-outlook-in-office-2011-for-ma.html