Outlook 97 Introduction to Outlook 97
Outlook 97 is a Personal Information Manager and email client all in one. It provides you with a contacts manger, calendar, to do list, inbox for email and other features. All the functions work together, thus you can record an appointment with a contact by selecting the contact from the contacts list, then from the Contacts Menu select New Meeting With contact. The meeting will then show-up on your calendar. The same can be done for messages, tasks and letters. In the case of letters the contact name and address can be exported to Word to create a letter to the contact.
If you have the option to use Outlook 98 or 2000 instead of 97 I highly recommend it. You will be rewarded with a more stable product and a better all-round product. Outlook 98 was available as a free upgrade, which could be downloaded from Microsoft. It appears that the downloadable upgrade is no longer available on Microsoft's site now that Office 2000 is available. Outlook 98 was sold in stores and you may still be able to find it there. You may possibly also be able to order it from Microsoft. Information on Outlook 2000 can be found on Microsoft's web site http://www.microsoft.com/office/dlsupport.htm.
I did some research and both Outlook 98 & 2000 are available. I found both listed at http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/524222163/canada/can_home.html, which is an online computer sales outlet. Be warned they are priced on the high side. With a bit of digging you may find a local retailer trying to get rid of Outlook 98 now that 2000 is available. I also located Outlook 98 at http://www.ebay.com/ at reasonable prices. Be warned though that it is my opinion that what you see at Ebay may not be what you get, thus buyer beware. I have bought software successfully through Ebay myself.
Using Outlook 97 with an Exchange Server
If you are going to use Outlook 97 with an Exchange server be sure to select Microsoft Exchange Server Support from the options list when you are installing Outlook. If you don't you will not be able to setup Outlook to work with your Exchange server. You can though add the Exchange Server Support after wards if you miss it during the initial installation.