its a fiddly little blighter! (Outlook Express 5.0)

Member Name: hazzeryoda

Product:	Outlook Express 5.0
Date:	10/12/00 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: may work well with experienced users who want total integration on a fast computer - then again, it IS free..

Disadvantages: everything else

Microft Outlook Express 5.0 has to be one of the mot frustrating programs Microsoft have ever churned out. It seems to me that MS has not tested this utility out thoroughly enough or spent enough time in consumer research and group tests.

It also feels like MS have tried to target a whole spectrum of different kinds of users (I know that OE will be used by many if not most people for email) and not thought about the fact that there's only bound to be one or two kinds of different end users.

If you have multiple email accounts you'd like to access, look elsewhere - even uninstall it and breath in the recovered space. OE is a real annoyance when trying to get mail from multiple accounts. It may cut you off the internet when you just want to get your email; it will force you to check all accounts, no matter how active they are.

There are way too many features for the typical user, but suppose they do want to take advantage of them, they'd be scrambling around all the menus searching for ths option. And once they've found it or have used it, it will most probably affect the whole utility.

If, however you are using just the one account, you're just about OK and you could get away with ONLY using it for checking the one account.

Another advantage is that OE is integrated with Windows and will automatically input any account settings, so inexperienced users can use it. The problems come when you try and access these accounts!
Also, there is a contacts screen which is small and hides in the bottom left corner, this lists all people in your address book and makes it easier to send mail to them. But the problem rears its head again, OE selects a default account to send to and can be confusing for even intermediate users if you just want to bang off a short email from another account; so you'll end up re-writing the email or sensibly using another program.
MSN messenger is also integrated, but will always load up when you o
pen OE and will take some time to get running.

Most of the 'time-saving' feeatures on OE are actually quite fiddly and will save you hardly any time at all. There seems to me to be an excess on integration and packing in features. It also feels very American and very bulky and not particularly user friendly.

If you simply want to read email from one account, go ahead; but if you want to do anything else, forget it.

Harry

Summary: