By Jim Calloway

You may have noticed a button in the upper right-hand corner of your Outlook screen that says try the new Outlook. Being a busy lawyer may have meant you thought “No time for that now. Maybe later.” And some who clicked on the button were so surprised by the new look of Outlook that they quickly reverted back.

But we have seen how these upgrades work. First released to beta testers. Now Microsoft is in the “seeking volunteers” stage. Then it will be made the default, perhaps with an option to return. And finally, it will either be required, or a lot of cool new features won’t work unless you have the upgrade.

Since it is inevitable, your attention is directed to Catherine Reach’s post What To Expect from The New MS Outlook. Catherine is the Director, North Carolina Bar Association Center for Practice Management, and we have previously featured some of her posts in Courts and More. Her coverage includes several new or expanded features, what is different and why some of your add-ins will no longer work in the new version.

We don’t know when this version of Outlook for Windows will be released. But if you try it and see something you don’t like, let Microsoft know. They are currently receiving a fair amount of feedback, I believe.