Which Outlook is which?

There is obvious confusion these days between Microsoft Outlook, Outlook.com (the new Hotmail), and Outlook 365. What are they?

Microsoft Outlook is part of Microsoft Office that you install on your PC or laptop. You set it up as a client to receive your email be it Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or you use the Hotmail Connector to get your Hotmail into Outlook. It is a suite of applications that work together that are installed locally on your PC. You can read more here: Microsoft Office Information

Outlook.com is the new Hotmail. Hotmail started out years ago as HoTMaiL - web-based HTML email. It evolved into Hotmail, became Windows Live, and has now been renamed to Outlook.com. This is confusing, but Outlook.com is simply just the new Hotmail. You can access it online or still use the Hotmail Connector to pull it into Microsoft Outlook.

If you currently have a Hotmail email address, you can go through the steps to convert it to an Outlook.com email address. It's very easy to do and the steps are presented to you one at a time. You can read more here: Outlook.com Information

Outlook 365 is essentially Outlook in the cloud. It is secure, anywhere access to Outlook, calendars, mail, etc. It's part of Office 365 and even includes file sharing. Here is a breakdown of Office 365:

 Cloud-based professional email

 Video conferencing and IM

 Share files inside and outside your organization

 Easy and secure administration

 Financially backed reliability

 Predictable monthly costs with no up-front infrastructure costs 

To find out more about Office 365, you can go here: Office 365 Information

As always, feel free to post and ask questions.

Where Can I Find Microsoft Outlook Help?

Where do you find understandable online help for Microsoft Outlook? Easy! There are people all over the place who are knowledgeable. They've created websites to help you troubleshoot Outlook, and there are forums too.

Here are some excellent resources for you:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/ - This website is excellent for someone who knows a little, but not a lot though I still find it extremely helpful for anyone of any skill level. It's well-written and easy to understand. It has a FAQ and How To sections, explains quite a bit about Outlook, and will cover most of your basic questions as a new Outlook user.

http://www.slipstick.com/ - This website is excellent for people of all skill levels in Outlook. It's more sophisticated, covers more complicated issues,

http://www.msoutlook.info/ - TONS of helpful information here. It's organized into neat categories that makes it easy to look up your particular problem.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/?CTT=97 - as always, Microsoft has excellent support for their products.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/outlook?tab=unanswered - this is the Micrcosoft Outlook forum. Log in (you can use your Hotmail, Windows Live, or Outlook.com credentials), ask a question. Knowledgeable users or even Microsoft MVP's will answer you (maybe even me!).  Be sure to provide as many details as possible: version of Office, version of Operating System, antivirus (what type, do you have it actively scanning incoming/outgoing email), errors (include the entire error message and any numbers). Don't ever post your email publicly. It's an unwise practice and the moderators will remove it. No one needs to have it or any of your passwords in order to work to resolve your issue.

Outlook.com is NOT Microsoft Outlook!

Outlook.com is the new Hotmail. Hotmail started out as HoTMaiL (note the HTML?), a web-based email. It has now been updated to Outlook.com. You can convert your Hotmail email address to Outlook.com and even change your email address.

Just like you can with Hotmail, you can use Outlook to pull your Outlook.com mail using the Hotmail Connector. It's quite easy to set up, it will walk you through it and you'll be pulling your Outlook.com email into Microsoft Outlook in no time!

Here are some visuals:

Hotmail

Outlook.com

Hotmail Connector (including overview)

Note that it is recommended you be using Outlook 2003 or newer.