Navigating The Pros And Cons Of Outlook 365?
Have you ever think that why Outlook 365, a Microsoft product, has so many advantages. And most important, despite having so many positive features, why this email application has some negatives also? In this blog, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of Outlook 365. We will explore the merits and demerits of an Outlook 365/ OWA account.
Office 365, a collaborative suite of Microsoft Products. It can be accessed through a web browser from PC or Smart Cellphones. We can select services from the available apps via payment on Services basis. Outlook 365 is an e-mail application for effective management of E-mails, Calendars, Tasks, Contacts. MS-Outlook for Office 365 has millions of customers around the globe, despite being a subscription plan. MS hasn’t just made it visually more dazzle. It also comes packed with various useful features like social networking integration, Peeks, In-line replies, Weather tool, Touch-oriented mode, Improved Calendar module, Renamed Contacts module etc.
What Exactly is the Microsoft Outlook for Business?
People are frequently confused between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook.com. Outlook is an email program that is installed on your computer as part of the Microsoft Office Suite, whereas Outlook.com is simply Microsoft’s online email service.
Pros and Cons of Outlook 365
A) List of Features of Outlook for Microsoft Office 365
O365 email client i.e. Outlook 365 provides following features to its users:
Email Flagging:
The pin feature is called the (flag) in this email application, which allows a user to pin individual emails. These emails are displayed on the top of the mailbox with a yellowish color.
An Image showing Pinned Emails in an Outlook mailbox
One Click Archiving/Sweep Spams:
Outlook 365 comes with effective spam and junk filtering features. It provides a Sweep feature with the help of which a user can move emails from a specific user, emails from a certain date or time period to a specific folder with just a click. It has made the archiving easier.
Email Display:
It has a single line email display which is very compact and attractive. A secondary window is present at the right side of single line inbox display. The secondary window is an area where email pop-ups when hovered over by the mouse pointer.
Calendars and Task Management:
There is an icon on the left bottom for calendar and another icon for the task. The calendar opens in the navigation pane when the icon is clicked. The display makes it easy to schedule appointments, events allowing to quickly edit and rearrange. It also gives a 5-day weather forecast.
An Image showing interface of the Outlook 365 calendar
A task is an item created on Outlook and tracked until it’s completed. A task can be anything from a manual to-do entry to a flagged email for certain follow-up as an action.
An Image showing task notification area in Outlook 365
Composing an Email:
Composing an email has never been a fun. But with the help of features like custom borders, email resize, shadow effect for images and image rotation has made it has made it easier.
Multiple Accounts:
Outlook 365 lets you manage multiple IMAP/POP3/Exchange and MSN account.
Easy Collaboration:
With Outlook 365 we get various online file sharing and collaboration tools like Sway, Yammer, OneNote, PowerPoint, SharePoint etc.
An image showing Collaboration Apps in Outlook 365
B) Cons of Microsoft Outlook 365
Although there are many benefits of Outlook 365, still there are some points of which it is lacking. Some of the points are:
Downtime:
Sometimes due to mishap or other factors Outlook 365 could be unreachable. During such problems, users have a hard time in using this application.
Cannot Delay Update:
If there’s an update available for any Microsoft product and App then the user cannot delay it. The user can neither Roll back to the previous version after update even if he/she was more comfortable with the previous version. The features do change frequently and it could be hard for a user to keep up with them.
Confusing for Conventional Outlook Users:
There is a lot of set-up for custom Outlook views that might be confusing for old users. Even the menus and options have been moved to different areas making it difficult for the old users to cope.
Connectivity Dependant:
Being a cloud-based utility, it cannot be used if the internet is down. It is probably not the best option in case of unreliable Connectivity.
Exclusively for Subscribed user
This comes under both pros and cons of the Outlook 365. It is Exclusively for those users only who are ready to pay $’s every year.
Use of Full Functionality:
Most Users could not use it to its full productivity and efficiency because they are untouched by its latest features.
Compatibility of Collaboration Tools with Business Tools:
Sometimes the frequently updated Collaborative tools with Outlook 365 could not be Compatible with the Core Tools of your Business and Enterprise.
Conclusion
MS Outlook is one of the most popular and reliable email clients, but the advantages and disadvantages of anything go hand in hand. The above article has described all the pros and cons of Outlook 365 account, to make it more easy for the user to use this email client. Moreover, with Office 365, Outlook can be used to its full efficiency and productivity. Although the new interface could be a bit tricky for conventional outlook users. In the end, it’s up to user to decide whether they opt for Outlook or Outlook 365.