Today we?re going to take a look at the third and final application I?m going to cover (for now), Microsoft Outlook.

Ask most business-people who use their PC in the course of their business, and they will probably tell you that Microsoft Outlook is probably the most important application they use daily. This should be no surprise, as Outlook is, for them, the route to their e-mail, their address book, calendar, task list and for some, their general notepad. Such an application is known on planet geek as a Personal Information Manager (PIM).

For Earthlings, its likely that most of us will use this mainly for email and addresses. By taking and configuring the basic details of your email account and settings, in minutes, provided you have a working internet connection, you can have a working email account. In the course of the past year with my ?day-job? I have had dealing with all the Internet Service Providers in Bermuda, specifically with regard to setting up email accounts for their customers, and I have to say they are all superb at assisting even the lest experienced earthling, at setting up their Outlook for email access.

E-mail is pretty obvious, with an Inbox, a Sent Items, Outbox etc. etc., which are simply electronic representations of their physical equivalents we find when utilising surface mail. Lets spend a few minutes following how email works: First we write the e-mail and address it to our friend . When we send the mail, the first thing that happens is that the network elements of Windows will search for the domain ?email.bm?.

Once found, on the Internet, they will commence the handshake that will enable the mail-item to (hopefully) arrive in your friends email.

The two network elements used here (there are actually MANY elements used, but we?re going to focus on just two), are SMTP (Send Mail Transfer Protocol) and POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3).

Between them, they establish the common ground between your mail server and your friends, and then they pass the message between them. We don?t need to know the ins-and-outs of these protocols, except to note that POP3 holds OUR email (mail se to us etc), and when we send mail to others, we use SMTP.

The route taken from our mail server to your friend?s server is of no consequence to us, and indeed may take a circuitous route halfway around the globe before arriving in your friend?s mail ? but even if it does, it usually concludes successfully within a matter of seconds.

Some advice regarding your email: use it as you would ordinary surface mail ? once you have received a letter from a friend and responded, you rarely keep hold of it, you would probably throw it away at some point; similarly, if you order a book from Amazon.com, once the book has arrived and you are happy with its condition, you would probably throw away the order details: Too many people clutter their email with gigantic mailboxes filled with not much of any value.

By way of example, at Christmas I had cause to move my e-mailbox between systems at home: Of 700 e-mails I had retained, just over thirty were actually required. Stay on top of your mailboxes to ensure they don?t become unwieldly.

The other facilities provided by Outlook are equally important ? the calendar facility allows you to schedule appointments, provide reminders to yourself and others, share your calendar details with others etc.

Extremely powerful and useful ? spend some time getting to know it.

The address book contained in Outlook is probably the most crucial element of it ? many people find that losing their address book is far more damaging that losing their e-mail box. It is very important therefore to ensure you back it up regularly, and I will be covering that in a few weeks? time.

The task list facilities allow you to prioritise and set deadlines, colour specific items and categorise them according to projects. Also, very useful.

With all of these facilities, the best was of getting to know them is to use them. Spend some time creating, deleting and manipulating emails, address book entries, appointments, reminders, tasks. I promise you that if you only manipulate them using the methods provided by Outlook, you cannot damage anything and the value to you as an Earthling will be extraordinary.

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