Better Together: Do More with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Customize your notifications with improved Out of Office Assistant options. You can now set distinct internal and external out-of-office messages. For example, instead of one standard message that applies both to coworkers and outside contacts, you can create a detailed message for coworkers while sending a basic out-of-office message to outside contacts. You can also schedule start and end times for your out-of-office messages, setting them up in advance and turning them off automatically when they are out of date.

Get started quickly with Autodiscover. Setting up your Exchange Server account is as easy as entering your e-mail address and password. The connection between Office Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 is dynamic, so even if your mailbox is moved to another Exchange Server computer, your work isn't interrupted.

Rapidly locate the information you want using Instant Search. The integrated and flexible search capabilities of Office Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 help you locate information from any part of your Inbox by using keywords or other criteria in your e-mail (including attachments), calendar, contacts, or tasks, saving you valuable time.

Receive e-mail, voice mail, and faxes in one place. The unified messaging capabilities of Exchange Server 2007 route your voice mail and faxes directly to your Inbox. Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access both provide a powerful interface for reviewing and managing all these types of messages. While on the road, you can access both voice and e-mail messages through any Exchange ActiveSync technology-enabled mobile phone or through Outlook Voice Access, a new capability that you can use to dial into your Inbox using any touch-tone phone and have your messages read back to you.

Receive voicemail alongside your e-mail through the unified messaging capabilities of Exchange Server 2007, simplifying the way you manage your communication. View a larger image.

Share information with coworkers in one click. Using Exchange Server 2007 sharing policies, you can share a calendar, contact list, task folder, or other information with a colleague and request to see the recipient's information at the same time, making group collaboration easier than ever.

By using sharing requests, you can smoothly transfer information, such as a calendar, from one person to another. View a larger image.

Control access to your calendar information. Use security levels to govern who can view and access your availability (free/busy) information. For example, you might want your teammates to be able to view your availability or even your calendar items, but at the same time you might not want to make this information available to everyone in the company. Exchange Server 2007 and Office Outlook 2007 provide the ability to grant access on a case-by-case basis and to set different levels of reading permissions so that you can selectively grant access to your information.

Improve the way you schedule meetings. The new Exchange Server 2007 Scheduling Assistant automatically suggests the best time for a meeting when given a list of desired attendees and resources. No longer is it necessary to analyze others' free/busy information to set up a meeting that's convenient for everyone. An intuitive color-coded interface gives you precise information so that you can set up your meeting efficiently and get on with your work.

The new scheduling capabilities in Exchange Server 2007 provide intelligent insight into availability and preferred times, speeding meeting scheduling. View a larger image.

Easily schedule resources for your meetings. The Resource Booking Attendant's new resource picker makes it far easier to search for and find available and suitable conference rooms or other resources. Through Exchange Server 2007, administrators can set up resource calendars, making it easy for you to see the daily availability of resources or conference rooms in your building. Automated and customized resource "accepts" and "declines" avoid room conflicts and enforce room policies, also set up by the administrator. The new interface speeds meeting scheduling, saving you time and effort when trying to meet with others.

Reduce clutter with improved meeting request handling. The Exchange Server 2007 Calendar Attendant will automatically modify out-of-date or unnecessary meeting messages, removing the need to re-accept the meeting and avoiding out-of-date information that can lead to confusion. With the level of meeting noise greatly reduced, your productivity is not hampered.

Help ensure compliance with Managed E-Mail Folders. Exchange Server 2007 offers Managed E-Mail Folders, a new approach to document retention, archiving, and regulatory compliance. Users see and interact with these folders in Office Outlook 2007 just like any other mail folder, but the messages stored within this folder gain retention, archive, and expiration policies defined by the Exchange Server administrator. With Managed E-Mail Folders, users and administrators can easily comply with external regulations as well as internal company policies regarding message retention.

Increase protection through integrated security technologies. Office Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 work together to provide the latest in active messaging protection to further curb unwanted spam and viruses while giving you more confidence in the security of your messages. Exchange Server 2007 acts as the first scan on incoming e-mail messages, determines the legitimacy of the message, and, if applicable, disables links or URLs present in the message to help protect users. New Exchange anti-phishing capabilities help to prevent phishing e-mail messages from reaching you in the first place.

Have more confidence in the security of your messages. E-mail legitimacy is managed through new E-Mail Postmark technology in Office Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server auto-encryption. Outlook E-Mail Postmark applies a token (actually a computational puzzle that acts as a spam deterrent) to e-mail messages it sends, which is read by a receiving Exchange Server 2007 server as a check for the reliability of the incoming message.