Do you know? What’s New in Microsoft Outlook 2013 Beta?

MS Outlook 2013 Beta is now available with a slightly revised user experience as compared to previous versions. You can now enjoy its unification with other Microsoft products including native Hotmail and social networking integration.

Microsoft has not only redesigned the general look and feel of the Outlook email client but also added new features to the product:

Let’s see what’s new?

• Metro UI: It makes easier for users to navigate to their documents and pictures. The new outlook has been made more touch friendly. This provides a much better interface within outlook. Its simple than the previous version and make outlook UI less cluttered. 

• Hotmail and social networking integration: With Outlook 2013 Beta previous Outlook Connector and Social Connector add-on are no more required. It offers native social networking integration of Hotmail as well as other social sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. You can easily linkup with your favorite social networking services.

• Peeks: It is an application-centric QuickLook i.e. Offers Quick Look to the information about Outlook items without actually opening them and also you don’t need to leave the current window. Now, you can see a pop-up preview of the modules (People, Mail, Calendar and Tasks) just by simply mouser over one of them. These modules links have moved from the sidebar to the bottom of the screen.

While emailing a particular contact, People pane will appear in the bottom of the new message window as it appeared in case of social connector in the previous versions. You can view some information about the contact that appears right in this page. If you want to get more information about the contact, you can simply expand it to view more information about the contact. This information will include the details gathered from the he integrated contacts list, email service and various other social networking services configured in your outlook client. 

• Inline replies: In previous versions of Outlook, a new window would pop-up when you replied to an email message. Now, replies can be made inline by default in the area normally reserved for the reading pane instead of opening a new window. And, this is now consistent with (OWA) Outlook Web Application.

• Weather tool: Outlook 2013 Beta includes a weather tool bar in the Calendar module.

• Touch-oriented mode: User can turn on/off the touch mode feature. You can now easily navigate Outlook, You can easily handle the menu items as you can enlarge or scale down the size with your finger instead of a mouse.

• Improved Calendar module: Improved Calendar module offers support for various calendar types, such as the CalDAV standard. 

• Renamed Contacts module: Contacts module has been renamed to the more consistent People.

The entire MS office suite 2012 or Office 15 has been made more consistent with the added new features. The user can now enjoy world class messaging, contacts, calendaring and social collaboration for both enterprise and cloud. These improved outlook features are just a visionary peak. There is a lot more that Microsoft is going to add in years to come.