Many people have already converted to Outlook Express for its clean interface, impressive feature list, and free price. However, Claris Emailer fans have still been clinging to the defunct product for lack of an equivalent alternative. It might be time to let go of the old and move on to the new. Outlook Express 4.5 improves on earlier versions and adds various features aimed at making former Emailer users feel more at home. With these enhancements and an unbeatable price tag, it will be very hard to resist Microsoft's offering.
Breaking In the client
Installation of Outlook Express is a breeze. Just drag and drop the folder to your hard drive, and then start up the application. The first time you run Outlook Express, it will install the necessary shared libraries, which are the same ones used by Internet Explorer 4.5. Outlook Express features Microsoft's "Self Healing" technology -- if any critical file becomes corrupted or deleted, it will automatically create a new copy of it. This self-repairing mechanism is an excellent addition to Outlook Express and works quite beautifully.
One of the biggest gripes with switching your email client is having to copy over all of the mail, addresses, and filters. As long as you're using a mainstream client like Emailer or Eudora, it should generally be as simple as exporting from your previous client and importing in Outlook Express. One notable oddity with this process is the inability to transfer group address book listings from Emailer to Outlook Express. Email accounts, mail rules (filters), and preferences will need to be configured. The total time it takes to configure Outlook Express and import mail from your previous email client depends mostly on how mail you have to import. Each message takes roughly one second to import and if you plan on importing more than 2000, make sure that you increase Outlook Express's memory.
Features aplenty
Outlook Express offers an exceptional feature list and speed for a free product, rivaling ones that could cost $50 or more. The interface for reading mail is the often used three-paned window, which has a folder list on the left, message list at the top right, and message content on the bottom right. The status of sending and receiving e-mail is shown in a separate progress window. There are several columns in the message list that can be turned on and off and used to sort, both normal and reverse order. Contextual menus can be used in both the folder and message lists, to easily perform simple commands such as setting a message's priority (Low, Normal, or High) or compacting a folder. Each pane can be resized, and both the folder list and message content can be collapsed completely for more room to work. This might also be useful for long-time Emailer users, who are more accustomed to a separate window for each message. However, if you choose to use this method, there is no way to delete the currently viewed message and move to the next one with one click of a button or keystroke. Outlook Express was clearly designed with the three-paned view in mind.
This product isn't all about e-mail; it also features other communication features as well. For instance, it contains a full contacts manager, which not only stores names and e-mail addresses, but also mailing address, multiple phone numbers, company name, web page address, and notes on the contact. Outlook Express is also fully Apple-scriptable, so scripts can be used to manipulate and use this data very effectively. Microsoft also boasts support for newsgroups within the client, but it is a poor implementation and you're better off sticking with a full-featured news reader.
The client can handle both multiple users and multiple e-mail accounts; both POP3 and IMAP are supported, as well as e-mail composed in HTML. Each user can require a password to switch to their settings of accounts, signatures, mail rules, contacts, and saved mail. Signatures are easy to create, but it is rather annoying if you use a certain signature with a certain e-mail account. There is no way to set a default signature for each e-mail account, so you have to manually select the signature that you want to use for a message if it's not the general default signature. However, it does display the signature within the message window so you know exactly what will be seen by the recipient. There is also the option to use a random signature, and each signature can be set to not be included in the randomly selected list.
Mail rules, which filter incoming and outgoing mail, are very easy to set up. It offers all of the usual options, and can also be used to trigger Applescripts. The find feature is pretty simplistic, and doesn't offer any advanced searching options that can be found in clients like Mailsmith. If you have Office 98 installed, Outlook Express will take advantage of spell checking as you compose your messages. Drafts of outgoing messages can be saved, opened at a later time, completed, and then sent. This can be very convenient while trying to write that long letter to the friend across the country or the business partner on the road.
Not perfect, but getting there
Outlook Express does have a couple flaws that users of other email clients will be quick to point out. First, there is no way to set Outlook Express to "partially download" a file that's larger than a specified number of MB. Thus, if someone sends you an attatchment you will be forced to download that message entirely before you can proceed with checking the rest of the email waiting for you. Second, if you reply to message, and then decide that you don't want to (and close the replied-message) the original message still appears as having been replied to in the list view, as denoted by the arrow, which can be confusing, to say the least.
The best email client?
Outlook Express is an outstanding e-mail client that does the job well for a price that can't be beat. It does many things well, and will be the preferred choice for many e-mail users. Give it a try and if it doesn't suit your needs, there will be no need to drive back to the store for a refund.
