Outlook 2000 for Windows

Visual QuickStart Guides, as a rule, are concise and easy to follow, and they distinguish the things you want to do with a program from the things the program is merely capable of doing. Outlook 2000 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide applies these excellent traits to Microsoft Outlook 2000, the powerful but sometimes confusing electronic mail client and personal information manager that ships with Microsoft Office 2000. This book shows you, with illustrated procedures, exactly what you need to do your work with Outlook under Windows.

Striking a remarkable balance of presentation styles that ought to appeal to all kinds of learners, this book shows how to do everything in words and pictures. Not only are there prose statements of the steps to follow but also screen shots, integral to the presentation, that make it clear what you're supposed to do and what you should see as a result. Even potentially hairy tasks, such as establishing a distribution list to get messages out to an entire department, are explained with aplomb (the options and alternate approaches get attention without muddying the situation). The index is good too, though it assumes the reader is familiar with Outlook terminology: You can't find "to-do list," but the entry for "Task form" will lead you to the proper page. Overall, this book is a winner. --David Wall

Topics covered: Details of Outlook 2000 for Windows from the perspective of novice and intermediate users, creating and managing items and folders, retrieving and reading electronic mail messages, sending e-mail messages, creating one-time and recurring appointments, and customizing the program.