I have just seen screenshots (courtesy of Boy Genius Report) for the new Outlook 2011 for Office on the Mac. Is everyone ready for proper Exchange Support from a Microsoft product on the Mac?  We’ll see I guess, there always seems to be something that doesn’t quite seem to work the same as Outlook.  Then again as I say to people, if you want Microsoft Office to work the way you’re used to “Get a PC”. 

The current implementation of Exchange Web Services in Snow Leopard is actually pretty good though I am not a fan of the folder layouts in Mac Mail I wonder if Outlook 2011 with use EWS or some to other Microsoft proprietary connector

You can see a full gallery of photos here http://www.boygeniusreport.com/nggallery/page-320/album-1/gallery-23/

It’s kind of good news for Mac owners when Office 2010 for Mac launches later this year Entourage will be consigned to the attic. It will be replace with a brand new and shiny Outlook for OS X that will rely on a new database, sync with Microsoft Exchange, and be compatible with Outlook for Windows.

Microsoft Mac Business Unit general manager Eric Wilfrid said he application will be a part of Office 2010 for Mac, which is expected to debut late 2010. “Outlook will be a Cocoa application,” Wilfrid said, citing the development layer of Mac OS X. “We’re building on the most modern OS X framework to make Outlook beautiful, to make it high performance, and to make it well integrated with the operating system.”

Outlook for Mac will also include information rights management with cross-platform support. The technology will allow users of Outlook on Mac and Windows to share confidential information on either platform. Features such as flagging messages, creating and accessing public folders and managed folders, and category sync will all be cross-platform as well.

Personally I prefer the support for Exchange Web Services built into OS X Snow Leopard allowing me to sync my Exchange mailbox, calendar, and contacts without needing to have any office suite installed.

Microsoft recently announced changes to the licensing model for Office 2010.  The first of these is to discontinue OEM editions of Microsoft Office, and replace it with what they are calling a PKC (Product Key Card) licence.

The product key card will be available from the PC manufacturer at the time of purchase or via retail stores.  Like the current MLK versions of 2007 and unlike versions prior to 2007 it will ship with no DVD media.

The key number contained on the card will unlock Office 2010 software that has been pre-loaded onto your new PC, and enables a simpler way for you to begin using Microsoft Office.  The three versions this applies to are, Office Home & Student 2010, Office Home & Business 2010, and Office Professional 2010.

Microsoft are also introducing Microsoft Office Starter 2010. The starter edition is basically a reduced-functionality version that includes in program advertising and will be available exclusively on new PCs. The goal for Microsoft being to expose as many people to office before they get a chance to install open source alternatives such as Open Office or Lotus Symphony both of which are free.

The Starter edition includes Office Word Starter 2010 and Office Excel Starter 2010, with the basic functionality for creating, viewing and editing documents, which on the one hand is offering a replacement to Microsoft Works, and on the other hand is offering the user a consistent experience, with things such as the Ribbon toolbar and a simple path to upgrade to a fully-featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product.

From a technical perspective this is a great because there will be only two licence models, (Volume licence and PKC)  and it’s likely that every PC from major manufacturers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo to name a few will all ship with office on every PC.

With Outlook 2007 open, Click Tools, Account Settings

Click Change

Click More Settings

Click Advanced Tab then Click Add Type in name of additional / secondary mailbox and Click OK

To finish click OK > Next > Finish > Close

In this latest entry I will detail the steps you have to follow to open a second mailbox in Outlook.

Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
Open the properties of the “Microsoft Exchange Server” Service.
Tools > Account Settings … (The “E-mail Accounts Wizard” pop-up window appears).

Select ‘Microsoft Exchange’ and press ‘Change…’

On the ‘Microsoft Exchange Server Settings’ tab, select ‘More Settings …’

On the ‘Microsoft Exchange Server’, add the additional mailbox select the ‘Advanced’ tab.
In the section ‘Mailboxes’, select ‘Add’ (The “Add mailbox” pop-up window appears).
Fill in (part of) the name of the user who’s mailbox you want to open.
(If more then one name exist, a ‘Check Name’ window appears from which you can choose the correct name)

Once the correct name is found, the name is listed in the list ‘Open these additional mailboxes’.

Click ‘OK’, ‘Next’ and ‘Finish’ to close all windows.
The additional mailbox can be accessed through the ‘Folder List’.
Enable ‘Folder List’ view through View > Navigation Pane (ALT+F1).