Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta Now Available

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:36:00 GMT

UPDATE: You can download the final released version of the Outlook Connector here or through Windows Live Essentials at download.live.com.

Today you can now download the beta of the next version of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.

Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (Beta)

The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to let you access your Windows Live Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. You will be able to download and install the Connector to sync up your email and contacts in Windows Live Hotmail for free. However, if you are a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials, or Office Live Premium you will get the added functionality of being able to sync up your calendar, tasks and notes from Outlook to Windows Live Hotmail.

I know many of you probably took note to the statement made on the download page of being able to "synchronize your Windows Live Calendar in Outlook". Windows Live Hotmail currently has a built in calendar service which is essentially your Windows Live Calendar. Your calendar from Outlook is published and viewable through this service in Windows Live Hotmail.

I pinged Jared Brown today who is a Program Manager on the Outlook Connector Team to discuss today's Beta release and the Outlook Connector in general. One of the benefits that Jared highlighted for me was that when the Outlook Connector is installed it does not alter any pre-existing email accounts already setup in Outlook. For example: if you are a user in a Microsoft Exchange environment and want to access your Hotmail account via Outlook, the Connector won't impact the use of being connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server. Both email accounts will work without causing issues. "You'll essentially have two folders for each module, one will sync one won't (just like you'll have two email Inboxes etc.)," Jared explained.

I also asked Jared to talk a little bit about the backend technology that the Outlook Connector uses to sync up email and contacts. The Outlook Connector Beta uses DeltaSync - a brand new protocol for syncing up with web services (such as Hotmail) that is also used extensively in Windows Live Mail. Previous versions of the Outlook Connector employed DAV to sync up email. However, this proved to be expensive and not quite efficient enough especially with Hotmail's extremely large user base. "DeltaSync was created to boost efficiency and finally let us create a version of the connector that we can release for free," Jared said. DeltaSync is one of my favorite backend technologies to come out of Microsoft to-date.

I installed the Outlook Connector Beta on my PC and it works as advertised. It quickly syncs together email from Windows Live Hotmail into Outlook 2007 (note that this beta also works with Outlook 2003 as well!) very nicely.

It also syncs your Windows Live Contacts as well. When installed in Outlook - you will get a new Outlook Connector Toolbar that allows you to view your server status.

Your server status includes how much space you have left in Hotmail and any errors that may have occurred during sync. I am currently not a MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials or Office Live Premium subscriber so I get a red "x" next to calendar which fails to sync since I am not paying for a service that offers that added benefit. However email and contacts sync up great. You can still use Outlook's calendar, it just won't sync to the Windows Live.

You are able to configure calendar sharing and add more accounts to use the Outlook Connector with. If you have multiple Hotmail accounts or Windows Live Custom Domains and Office Live accounts - they all can be configured into a single Outlook profile. I configured up to 4 Hotmail accounts in one Outlook Profile. I saw no decrease in performance in Outlook 2007 either.

In Windows Vista, since Outlook 2007 utilizes the Windows Desktop Search indexer, any email that you sync up from Windows Live Hotmail in Outlook 2007 is easily searchable through Windows Vista's Start Menu.

Special thanks to Jared Brown for taking the time to talk with me today. Remember, this release of the Outlook Connector is a beta. If you have any issues, just go to "Send Feedback" under the Outlook Connector menu in Outlook (see above screenshot). Or leave a comment and I'll be sure to forward the feedback on to the team.

Subscribe and Share Calendars with Outlook 2007 and Windows Vista

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 29 May 2007 01:39:00 GMT

Outlook 2007 has a very little known feature where you can publish your calendar to the web using Microsoft Office Online. Microsoft Office Online has a Calendar Sharing Service that gives you 2MB of space online to share calendars with friends, families, and co-workers through the web. To view this service on Microsoft Office Online, all you need to do is sign-in using your Windows Live ID.

To share and publish your calendar in Outlook 2007 is very easy. All you need to do is right-click on your calendar and go to Publish to Internet and Publish to Office Online. You will be instructed to sign-in using your Windows Live ID before being able to proceed in publishing you calendar to the web. You can restrict access for your calendars so they are private and only sharable via email or you can make them public for anyone to access. Once your calendar is published, Outlook 2007 will write up an email for you which will include a link to your online calendar that can be sent to anyone you want to subscribe to the calendar.

Today, I've published a public Windows Experience Blog calendar for all to view and subscribe to. You can access the calendar online through Microsoft Office Online by clicking here.

Windows Vista actually ships with a brand new Windows app called Windows Calendar that includes the ability to subscribe (and publish) calendars. Using Windows Calendar in Windows Vista, you can subscribe to my published calendar on Microsoft Office Online! In Windows Calendar, just click the Subscribe button in the toolbar and a screen will appear asking for the URL of the shared calendar. Just put the following URL into the textbox:

http://calendars.office.microsoft.com/pubcalstorage/d1z4b4lz92334/
Windows_Experience_Calendar_Calendar.ics

Click subscribe and options will appear for you to tweak like how often you want Windows Calendar to check for updates and also what you want to call the calendar (sometimes what I call a calendar isn't what you want to call it).

By doing this, you are now subscribed to my publicly shared Windows Experience Blog Calendar. Any updates to the calendar I make in Outlook 2007 from my end would be reflected and updated on your end. That is because I have it configured to publish updates automatically. No, this isn't just a test calendar; I intend to keep it updated with events and any other important dates that come to mind! So get subscribed!

Windows Calendar supports the ability to publish calendars too except it isn't tied to any specific web service like Outlook 2007 is. You have the option of publishing to a WebDAV-capable server. You can also publish calendars to network shares and to your harddrive. I've actually published calendars to my Windows Home Server for home network access only between PC's (which worked great!).

There is a way to get around having to publish to a WebDAV-capable server. You can publish your calendar to a location on your harddrive and then FTP the .ics file to the web. Just remember the URL of where you uploaded the .ics file. From there, you can subscribe to the calendar and also send the URL to your friends. I used to do this as well. This solution is for more advanced users and lacks automation unfortunately.

In my opinion, this is a great example of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 working together AND a great way to stay on top of your latest happenings on your calendars.

Windows Experience Blog : Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta Now Available

Subscribe and Share Calendars with Outlook 2007 and Windows Vista