Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Full Version for PC (543-03865)

We bought a new Dell almost a year ago. I purchased and put Outlook 2007 on it myself because of my prior good experience with previous versions of Outlook. According to my husband, who uses Outlook 2003, there are very few differences between the two. So if you have an earlier version, 2003 and above, you might as well stick with them. However, if you purchase a new PC and need to upgrade then I would recommend this program. What I love about Outlook is that it allows you to have your email, tasks, notes, and calendar all in the same place. I hate having to open multiple programs to access all these different things. I love that when Outlook is running and you get an email a small pop-up appears above your task bar to let you know. This shows you basic content of the email. Then if you want to open the email you click on the pop-up and it opens without you having to go into the program. This saves me from having to completely deviate from what I was in the middle of. I can know at a glance whether I need to attend to it now or if it can wait. On the Outlook today page you can view your calendar for up to the next seven days along with your tasks and notes. You can set it to open a special sidebar that includes a 30-60 day calendar and more details about appointments and tasks. The ability to set up reminders is very handy and I get all my mail, except spam of course. My security suite keeps that out. You also have the option to color code items in your calendar so at a glance you can know what the appointment pertains to. I find this helpful in organizing bill payments. I set reminders for all the bills due and then in the calendar they are color coded on the date they are due so I never miss one. I read quite a few reviews that said Outlook was slow downloading messages. I found this to be true at first, but since I stopped it from receiving feeds, which Microsoft automatically sets it to do, I have had no further issues with that. I am running a dual core processor with Vista. There have been no compatibility issues over the past year. Early on I found it would encounter some problems connecting to my ISP in order to download messages, but some updates since then have cleared all that up. I have had no further instances of that happening for the last six months. Of course you can have your contact lists. I like the way it displays them like business cards so you do not have to open them to get all the information you are looking for in relation to phone numbers, email, and addresses. The program integrated very smoothly with Vista and has been reliable.