configuring / comparing Outlook with OE

[Kristen K.]

Hello,

Hopefully I can find some help here. I’m currently in utter disbelief with
this situation.

I just installed Outlook 2007, and I can’t believe what a hassle it is.

I have been running Outlook Express for the last 12 years. I now have five
email accounts, three that are for my business, one for bill pay purposes,
and another personal. I thought by now, since 1998 when I first started using
Outlook Express, that Microsoft would have developed into Outlook the basics
of a good functional email program, something that was a “step-up†from
Outlook Express, and so I decided to try Outlook. I have been told that
Outlook would give me better organization and efficiency when it comes to my
email needs.

However so far it looks as if Outlook is waste of time compared to Outlook
Express. There appears to be no real efficient and organized way for me to
separate my five email addresses and the associated email within Outlook
2007, as I have been able to do in Outlook Express.

With Outlook Express I was able to create five separate identities, one for
each of my email addresses. I was able to then seamlessly switch back and
forth between email addresses in the blink of an eye with no problems. Each
identity had its own inbox, outbox, sent folder, and deleted folder. For
organization, I could then also create dozens of individual sub-folders and
name them accordingly as needed within each of my five identities.

Apparently none of this is really possible with Outlook 2007, at least not
in any way that is efficient and organized.

First, as I started to configure Outlook for my five email addresses, my
worst fears were realized. Outlook will only allow me to hit one
“send/receive†button, and then all of my email from my five different email
addresses is dumped into one inbox. What a joke. Five email addresses that
have no choice but to share the same inbox, outbox, sent & deleted folders.
Who in their right mind would want to have their business email mixed up with
their personal email and vice-versa, only to then have to spend the time to
sort it out?

As I explored a little further, I found out that if I wanted to spend some
further time, I would have to set up some kind of “system of rules†for each
email address, that would somehow direct my different email into different
folders…..a further hassle.

I was hoping for a better, more organized and efficient email program, only
I’m finding out that Outlook Express makes Outlook 2007 look inefficient in
comparison. I could see if someone only had one email address, or did not
care about organization when it came to many emails coming and going each
day, then Outlook might be acceptable, but this is ridiculous. Who in
business only has one email address? Who doesn’t care about organizing,
efficiency, and keeping separation between different email addresses?

I’m at a loss to where the benefit is for me to switch to Outlook from
Outlook Express, unless I’m missing something here, (which is possible since
I’m new to Outlook).

Before submitting this post, I started searching this forum as well as on
the internet for answers, and was informed that if I wanted to start paying a
monthly fee, I could pay for something called an “exchange server or
service� Paying to have me email sorted or organized would be a further rip
off. I also found a post that said I can set up separate “profilesâ€, one for
each email address, within Outlook that would give me some separation between
email accounts, (which started to sound encouraging) but then the post went
on to say in that order to switch from one profile to another within Outlook,
I would need to actually shut-down and close-out the Outlook program
completely each time I wanted to switch between profiles. That isn’t
efficient and doesn’t make sense. So I wanted to see what this forum had to
say before going through all that hassle first.

Is it unreasonable for someone in business to have five email addresses and
want to be able to have some efficiency, separation, and organization with
the five email addresses?

How could Microsoft have blown it so bad on this one?

Of course I am comparing Outlook to Outlook Express where all the issues
I’ve raised don't produce not even a hiccup.

So what am I missing here with Outlook? Isn’t Outlook supposed to be a
step-up and not a step-down from Outlook Express when it comes to efficiency,
organization, and time savings? Isn’t Outlook supposed to be “better†than
Outlook Express for someone who needs some functionality?

I was told this is the forum to come to? ? ? Please Help.


in utter disbelief,

Christine K.

 

[DL]

OE is now dead, superceeded by WLM, OE doesnt have calander, tasks and other
information services.
Exchange is not going to do anything that you cannot allready do in Outlook,
once you have taken the trouble to configure it.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/sortmail.htm
Scroll down to the bottom, 'Directly assign.............'

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

Hello,

Hopefully I can find some help here. I’m currently in utter disbelief with
this situation.

I just installed Outlook 2007, and I can’t believe what a hassle it is.

I have been running Outlook Express for the last 12 years. I now have five
email accounts, three that are for my business, one for bill pay purposes,
and another personal. I thought by now, since 1998 when I first started using
Outlook Express, that Microsoft would have developed into Outlook the basics
of a good functional email program, something that was a “step-up†from
Outlook Express, and so I decided to try Outlook. I have been told that
Outlook would give me better organization and efficiency when it comes to my
email needs.

However so far it looks as if Outlook is waste of time compared to Outlook
Express. There appears to be no real efficient and organized way for me to
separate my five email addresses and the associated email within Outlook
2007, as I have been able to do in Outlook Express.

With Outlook Express I was able to create five separate identities, one for
each of my email addresses. I was able to then seamlessly switch back and
forth between email addresses in the blink of an eye with no problems. Each
identity had its own inbox, outbox, sent folder, and deleted folder. For
organization, I could then also create dozens of individual sub-folders and
name them accordingly as needed within each of my five identities.

Apparently none of this is really possible with Outlook 2007, at least not
in any way that is efficient and organized.

First, as I started to configure Outlook for my five email addresses, my
worst fears were realized. Outlook will only allow me to hit one
“send/receive†button, and then all of my email from my five different email
addresses is dumped into one inbox. What a joke. Five email addresses that
have no choice but to share the same inbox, outbox, sent& deleted folders.
Who in their right mind would want to have their business email mixed up with
their personal email and vice-versa, only to then have to spend the time to
sort it out?

As I explored a little further, I found out that if I wanted to spend some
further time, I would have to set up some kind of “system of rules†for each
email address, that would somehow direct my different email into different
folders…..a further hassle.

I was hoping for a better, more organized and efficient email program, only
I’m finding out that Outlook Express makes Outlook 2007 look inefficient in
comparison. I could see if someone only had one email address, or did not
care about organization when it came to many emails coming and going each
day, then Outlook might be acceptable, but this is ridiculous. Who in
business only has one email address? Who doesn’t care about organizing,
efficiency, and keeping separation between different email addresses?

I’m at a loss to where the benefit is for me to switch to Outlook from
Outlook Express, unless I’m missing something here, (which is possible since
I’m new to Outlook).

Before submitting this post, I started searching this forum as well as on
the internet for answers, and was informed that if I wanted to start paying a
monthly fee, I could pay for something called an “exchange server or
service� Paying to have me email sorted or organized would be a further rip
off. I also found a post that said I can set up separate “profilesâ€, one for
each email address, within Outlook that would give me some separation between
email accounts, (which started to sound encouraging) but then the post went
on to say in that order to switch from one profile to another within Outlook,
I would need to actually shut-down and close-out the Outlook program
completely each time I wanted to switch between profiles. That isn’t
efficient and doesn’t make sense. So I wanted to see what this forum had to
say before going through all that hassle first.

Is it unreasonable for someone in business to have five email addresses and
want to be able to have some efficiency, separation, and organization with
the five email addresses?

How could Microsoft have blown it so bad on this one?

Of course I am comparing Outlook to Outlook Express where all the issues
I’ve raised don't produce not even a hiccup.

So what am I missing here with Outlook? Isn’t Outlook supposed to be a
step-up and not a step-down from Outlook Express when it comes to efficiency,
organization, and time savings? Isn’t Outlook supposed to be “better†than
Outlook Express for someone who needs some functionality?

I was told this is the forum to come to? ? ? Please Help.


in utter disbelief,

Christine K.

Christine,

It's not that bad.

First, please familiarize yourself with:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287532

While it is true that by default Outlook 2007 dumps everything into one
folder, it also supports multiple mail stores, similar to Outlook
Express identities.

Here is how you can fix this problem. I am assuming you are using POP3
accounts in this case.

There are two scenarios possible in your case.

1. You imported your identities from Outlook Express.
2. You re-created everything manually in Outlook 2007.

Scenario 1 is easy.
Go to Tools -> Accounts Settings
You should now see all of your accounts defined

At the bottom of that window, you will see "Select account delivers new
e-mail messages to the following location"

For IMAP accounts, that's not change-able and they have the right
behavior anyway.
For POP3 accounts, there is a "Change Folder" button.

1. Click "Change Folder"
2. Choose the desired delivery folder. By default you will see Archive
Folders and Personal Folders. You will want to click on "New Outlook
Data File"
3. Instead of Personal Folders, change the name to something more
appropriate, such as your e-mail address. That will let you see it at a
glance.
4. Click on OK
5. Expand the newly created folder and choose Inbox as your "New E-mail
Delivery Location"
6. Click OK and then Close.
7. Right-click on the new Inbox under your mail folders tree and choose
"Add to favorites". That will make it easier to see that folder at the
top of Mail pane.

This takes care of your "everything is dumped into one place" complaint.

The next concern will be keeping Sent mail separately. That is actually
not strictly necessary as you can use one Sent Items box but sort it so
it separates all accounts. Just right-click on the "Arranged By:" column
header and set it to "From".

Because you separated inbound mail in the previous step, your outbound
mail will be automatically stored in that accounts Sent Items folder.

However, there is one more thing you need to do and that is to select
the correct account to send your mail as.

When you reply to a message in an account's mailbox, Outlook will choose
by default to use the outbound mail settings configured for that
account. However, you can also override that by clicking on the
"Account" button under the "Send" button.

Outlook 2007 visually tells you which account it will use to send your
message in the event that more than one e-mail account can be used.

For the sake of completeness, IMAP accounts can be configured to use the
account's "sent items" mailbox instead of the default Sent Items box.
This does not apply to you but will to some people who will find this
message via search later.

If you want to make sure the mail remains on the server or if you need
to configure advanced settings such as SMTP authentication on POP3
accounts, go to Tools -> Account Settings -> (choose an account) ->
Change -> More Settings -> Advanced and then check the "Leave a copy of
messages on the server" in the delivery section.

More questions?
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[Christine K.]

Hello DL,

Outlook Express may be dead, but Outlook 2007 apparently can't handle
something as basic as downloading email into separate email accounts as I
described Outlook Express is currently doing to this day. Outlook can't seem
to handle my five emails without dumping everything into one inbox, which is
what I would have expected from Microsoft if this was 1994 when email was
really just starting up.

The link to the site you provided in your post does not address any of the
specific issues I raised, so why did you provide it? I went to that site
before I posted to look specifically for the issues I posted about.

If you're not going to read my post and speak toward the issues I raised,
with all due respect, what's the point of you posting?

I'm sure and I'm hoping there are others out there who know how to help.

Thanks anyways, you were allot of help DL.

 

[Christine K.]

Hi Leonid,

Thank you very much for quickly responding with what looks like some good
answers.

Since I was just setting up Outlook for the first time and getting used to
the basics, I was performing your "scenario 2" that is I was creating
everything manually. I wanted to see how well Outlook was going to work with
my five email addresses before jumping into it with everything.

I was hoping I would be able to separate email, (sort email) in the same
manner I have been able to in Outlook Express. That is, as it comes in, I
would create a folder for that particular person, or topic, or company, and I
would store specific email in each persons, each topics, or each company's
specific folders. I created a folder "tree" much like how the tree in
windows explorer looks. A tree of folders for whatever quantity and names of
folders I want to create. I would want to create a separate tree with folders
for each of my five email addresses.....I would hope each folder tree has
it's own inbox, outbox, sent, deleted, drafts, and then all the custom folder
I create and name.

Currently, in OE, this is how you set can set it up. It makes things neat,
clean and simple when it comes to sorting email. No need to keep hundreds of
email in one folder, each email goes into it's own separately created folder.
With hundreds of business emails, a folder tree seems to be one of the better
ways to organize email, like with Outlook Express

Is all this possible, and feasible, in Outlook 2007

Also, I haven't tried it yet, but as another option to the advice you
suggested, what about creating separate profiles for each email address? Is
that a viable option, or a waste of time? Do you really have to close the
Outlook program each time you want to switch profiles?

Thanks Leonid, you have been a great help with the information you have
provided,

sincerely,

Christine K.

 

[DL]

The link I posted, and the particular heading, specifically deals with the
seperation of data, if you cannot see / understand this, you need to think
again.
OE is a mail application only Outlook is a PIM
With respect to Lenoid I dont believe Exchange will give you anything extra,
that is not allready available (excluding access from other locations)

 

[Peter Foldes]

Christine

DL pretty much gave you the answer. Check the link that he supplied and follow the
instructions. What you like to achieve as you did in OE is very possible with
Outlook. Exchange Server will not give you any advantage over Outlook. Do you have
Exchange stand alone or do you have it with SBS or do you know at all what it is all
about and capable of ?

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

Hi Leonid,

Thank you very much for quickly responding with what looks like some good
answers.

Since I was just setting up Outlook for the first time and getting used to
the basics, I was performing your "scenario 2" that is I was creating
everything manually. I wanted to see how well Outlook was going to work with
my five email addresses before jumping into it with everything.

I was hoping I would be able to separate email, (sort email) in the same
manner I have been able to in Outlook Express. That is, as it comes in, I
would create a folder for that particular person, or topic, or company, and I
would store specific email in each persons, each topics, or each company's
specific folders. I created a folder "tree" much like how the tree in
windows explorer looks. A tree of folders for whatever quantity and names of
folders I want to create. I would want to create a separate tree with folders
for each of my five email addresses.....I would hope each folder tree has
it's own inbox, outbox, sent, deleted, drafts, and then all the custom folder
I create and name.

Currently, in OE, this is how you set can set it up. It makes things neat,
clean and simple when it comes to sorting email. No need to keep hundreds of
email in one folder, each email goes into it's own separately created folder.
With hundreds of business emails, a folder tree seems to be one of the better
ways to organize email, like with Outlook Express

Is all this possible, and feasible, in Outlook 2007

Also, I haven't tried it yet, but as another option to the advice you
suggested, what about creating separate profiles for each email address? Is
that a viable option, or a waste of time? Do you really have to close the
Outlook program each time you want to switch profiles?

Thanks Leonid, you have been a great help with the information you have
provided,

sincerely,

Christine K.

I wrote a huge article on doing it manually yesterday only to basically
kick myself when the standard import process worked much better and
pulled in all messages, folders etc. I've tested this pretty extensively.

Trust the wizards...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/286116

You may need to switch between identities to complete this.

Since you are new to the product, I think you will benefit from reading
this site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/FX100647191033.aspx

and from taking free video training from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR100654581033.aspx
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

I've been told that a better solution is to export Outlook Express.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196347
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[DL]

If you import OE msgs from OL the modified dates will all be set to the
Import date, which can create havoc with any Archive

"Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert"

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

However so far it looks as if Outlook is waste of time compared to Outlook
Express. There appears to be no real efficient and organized way for me to
separate my five email addresses and the associated email within Outlook
2007, as I have been able to do in Outlook Express.

You can certainly have multiple accounts and have Outlook automatically
separate the incoming data stream into multiple Inboxes. Why do you believe
you cannot?

With Outlook Express I was able to create five separate identities, one for
each of my email addresses. I was able to then seamlessly switch back and
forth between email addresses in the blink of an eye with no problems. Each
identity had its own inbox, outbox, sent folder, and deleted folder. For
organization, I could then also create dozens of individual sub-folders and
name them accordingly as needed within each of my five identities.

You can create as many subfolders are you please. Why do you think you
cannot?

Apparently none of this is really possible with Outlook 2007, at least not
in any way that is efficient and organized.

Except for the identities part, it's all possible.

First, as I started to configure Outlook for my five email addresses, my
worst fears were realized. Outlook will only allow me to hit one
“send/receive†button, and then all of my email from my five different email
addresses is dumped into one inbox. What a joke.

Only because YOU configured it to do that.

I’m at a loss to where the benefit is for me to switch to Outlook from
Outlook Express, unless I’m missing something here, (which is possible since
I’m new to Outlook).

Why rant about Outlook, then, if your new to it and don't yet understand
whether or not it can do what you want?

You can also use any number of other mail clients. Windows Live Mail will be
almost a match for Outlook Express. Many people like Thunderbird. There's
Pegasus mail, Eudora, and others as well, all free.

 

[Christine K.]

Hello DL,

First I want to apologize for my inappropriate response to your first post
regarding my questions. I am sorry for that. My comments were out of line.
Please forgive me.

Thank you for your input, it is much appreciated. And thanks for the
original link you provided in your first post to the website How-To-Outlook.
This is a very extensive and informative site that I've been perusing all
day. I've learned much at this site after getting familiar with the layout.

Thanks again DL, your info has helped save the day, and I'm slowly becoming
a believer in Outlook.

very best regards,

Christine K.
03/03/10 at 4:00am PST

 

[Christine K.]

Hi Leonid,

Thank you again for your support. I did also find an article at the
How-To-Outlook site that DL posted, stating the benefit of "exporting"
messages from OE into Outlook instead of the other way around.

I'm soaking up all the info you have provided along with the info fom DL,
thank you very much.

I'm slowly becoming an Outlook 2007 believer.

very best,

Christine K.
03/03/10 at 5:05am, PST