Why IT Workshop does not endorse the use of Microsoft Outlook Express or Microsoft Office Outlook.
Microsoft Entourage
Please note Microsoft Entourage is a far superior product and all the major problems of Outook do not apply to it. If it weren't for its lack of availibity we would recommend it. Unfortunately it is only available bundled with Microsoft office 2004 or as an Exchange client. However, if you are licensed for it, we recommend using it.
Poor Track record of security
- Outlook has had repeated vulnerabilities. These include:
- Email viruses
(the problem where the email itself, as opposed to an attachment, is actually a virus is almost exclusive to the Outlook family of programs).
- Dangerous attachments can be made to appear as innocent filetypes.
- 'Phishing' (fake emails designed to make the recipient divulge passwords) is made possible by the use of HTML email. (ITWorkshop recommends plain text email on ALL systems.)
Outlook is extremely inefficient processing of emails
- The Outlook family make it difficult, and not obvious how to reply to emails efficiently.
- Outlook does not, by default use the conventions developed over the first 20 years of email use for efficient communication.
- Outlook encourages users to put their reply IN FRONT of what they are replying to, and to send the whole of the entire thread of messages back and forward.
- This can cause ambiguity, and ommision in replies. It can even give the recipient the impression that the sender has not even bothered to fully read the message they are replying to.
- It caues unneeded data processing and storage.
- It does not colour quoted text to aide readibility.
- It can cause the recipient to waste time establishing the context of the message. The correct way to reply is to quote just enough of the parts of the message you are replying to. For context, this is normally indicated by preceding the lines with a chevron. The comments are then interleaved with this quoted text.
Poor processing of signatures
- The Outlook family insert their automaic signature in the middle of the email. (Incorrectly placed in front of the quoted text.)
- They do not remove the signature from the sender when quoting, leaving the wrong signature at the end of an email.
- They do not even include the standard signature separator on the top line. "-- " This prevents properly featured email progams from recognising the signature and treating it accordingly.
Poor display on other Systems
- Outlook does not always wrap text as per the standards, leading to ragged unproffesional display on other systems.
Alternatives and solutions to Outlook
- There are various alternative commercial or free solutions to Outlook.
Windows OS, Mac OS X, Linux
MAC OS
RISC OS
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