Managing e-mail can be very time consuming, so Outlook includes many features that help you keep your messages organized and under control. Outlook also offers a variety of tools for enhancing your e-mail, such as tools for decorating messages or for building special security into them.

Here are some of the e-mail features you can use:

• AutoPreview   Show messages in the Inbox with their first few lines displayed.
• Drafts folder   Retrieve unfinished messages from the Drafts folder, where all of your unsent messages are stored.
• Open attachments easily   To quickly get to the information you need, open and view an attachment without opening the e-mail message first.
• AutoName   Type names into the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes of a message, and Outlook automatically looks up the exact e-mail addresses in Address Book and verifies that the names match entries in the Address Book.
• Flag for follow-up   Mark messages with follow-up reminders.
• Look up names in public directories   When addressing e-mail, look up names in Internet public directories, such as Yahoo!, People Search, and Bigfoot.
• Signature   Automatically add a personal signature or text to e-mail messages you send, and insert a personal signature or text into any item. Create multiple signatures to use for different purposes.
• Digital security   Sign a message with a digital signature to make sure the message is not altered by someone else. Seal a message with encryption to make sure the message and its attachments are readable only by the recipients you select.
• Rules Wizard   Create rules to automatically move, delete, highlight, forward, or flag incoming and outgoing messages. Run rules at any time to process messages that you've already received, including those you've moved to other folders.
• Find all related messages or all messages from a sender   Find all messages in the current folder with the same subject or from a specific person.
• HTML mail   Send messages that contain items that a Web browser can display, for example, animated graphics, pictures, and multimedia objects.
• Switch e-mail formats on demand   Switch between HTML, Rich Text, and plain-text editing formats in Outlook at any time.
• Send Microsoft Office e-mail from Outlook   Compose a message by using any Office program and send it as HTML. Recipients can read the message whether or not the Office program is set up on their computer.
• Hyperlinks   Include a direct link to a file server or Web page in an e-mail message.
• Message expiration and deferred delivery   If you're using Microsoft Exchange Server, mark a message that you're sending to be deleted at a certain time. Or send a message now, but have it delivered to recipients at a later time.
• Organize the Inbox   Organize the Inbox by color-coding important e-mail messages, changing the way you view your messages, and filtering out junk e-mail messages.
• Preview pane   Read the entire contents of a message in a separate pane in the Inbox without opening the message.
• Reply comments   Easily identify your comments in the body of messages you're replying to by tagging the changes with your name.
• Stationery   Personalize your outgoing messages by adding images and background colors. For example, you can make your message look like a birthday card or a party invitation, either with the stationery provided or by creating your own.
• Read receipts   Receive a notification when the recipient has opened the message you sent.