![Outlook Outlook](/uploads/1/2/4/6/124633053/959325679.png)
Microsoft has plugged some key gaps in its 'new Outlook' for macOS, currently in preview and given a fresh update just a few days ago, but the product still has puzzling omissions that drive users back to the old version.
Launch Outlook application on the Mac Operating system; Navigate to Menu File Import option to view the Outlook emails in Mac Mail; In the next window, choose Outlook Data file(.pst or.olm) radio button and click the bottom right arrow to proceed further. More than just email Outlook for Mac now syncs your Google calendars and contacts. Get the best of Outlook Use Outlook’s advanced features with your Gmail, including Focused Inbox. System requirements for Outlook 2016 for Mac, part of the Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac suite. Set up Exchange account access using Outlook for Mac. If you have Outlook for Mac, you can use it to access your Exchange account. See Add an email account to Outlook for instructions. Set up Exchange account access using Mac OS X 10.10 or later. If you're running Mac OS X version 10.10 or later, follow these steps to set up an Exchange email.
The revised Mac Outlook was first revealed at the Ignite event in late 2019. It appears to be a complete rebuild of the Mac email client, geared towards Office 365, but the question administrators will be pondering is whether important features in the existing Outlook will ever appear in the new one.
The history of Outlook on the Mac is inglorious. Microsoft and Mac go back a long way. Excel, for example, was a Mac application two years before it appeared on Windows. When it came to Outlook though, Mac users lost out. Outlook on Windows goes back to 1997, but the first full Mac version did not appear until Outlook 2011, and even that was not very good, slower than the Windows version and missing some features, such as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
VBA has never come to Outlook on the Mac, but a 2014 release was much improved, as Microsoft began to push the idea of Office 365 everywhere rather than keeping users hooked on Windows.
The new Outlook for the Mac in its first preview (click to enlarge)
Fast-forward to today, and there is not that much missing in Outlook 365 for Mac versus Windows, VBA aside.
All that is set to change with the latest new Outlook Mac as the pendulum swings away from making the Mac Outlook close to the Windows one, and towards giving Mac users a more distinct experience. It is also a matter of protocols. The existing Outlook Mac uses Exchange Web Services (EWS) which is being phased out.
Outlook on Windows generally uses MAPI over HTTP, perhaps the nearest thing to a native Exchange protocol. Microsoft is not happy with either and for its 'modern' mail client in Windows 8 and Windows 10 it developed a new sync protocol. In the past this was sometimes called Hx but it seems now to go by the name Microsoft Sync.
When Microsoft acquired Accompli in 2014, whose product became Outlook Mobile, it used its own protocol but that too now uses Microsoft Sync. According to presentations at Ignite 2019, this new sync protocol is designed specifically for mail-related data and makes the best even of poor connections, prioritising recent data.
The move from EWS to Microsoft Sync enables new features and improved performance, and no longer downloads the entire mailbox to the local machine. System requirements are for macOS 10.14 Mojave and Office 365, Outlook.com or Gmail email accounts.
The snag with a rebuilt Outlook for Mac is that having nearly caught up with Windows Outlook, it is now far behind in terms of features. It is in preview and some will reappear, but it is unlikely to be the full set. It hardly qualifies as a mail client in its current incarnation, with no support for standard protocols like POP3 and IMAP, nor any way of connecting to on-premises Exchange.
Imagine OLE reinvented for the web and that's 90% of Microsoft's Fluid Framework: We dig into O365 collaborative tech
READ MORE'We don't support on-prem yet but it's going to come soon,' said Microsoft in November 2019; six months on it is not there yet. On the plus side, it not only looks pretty, with full support for the Mac's Dark Mode on Catalina, but also performs well, with a fluidity that frankly feels unusual in a Mac Outlook product.
Features of the new Outlook for Mac include a new unified inbox view that avoids clicking between accounts, if you have several configured. You can now reply to emails inline ('nested compose'), a convenience feature that has been in Windows Outlook for some time. There is a new 'ignore conversation' option. Creating meetings uses a new simplified dialogue that you can expand as needed.
As for the new features added in the June update, these include add-in support (a big deal), sensitivity labels for classifying confidential data, a People view for managing contacts, an option to create an event directly from an email, read receipts, and a 'coming soon' promise of the ability to open shared calendars and to encrypt emails with S/MIME.
The actual preview release did not quite live up to the promise. In particular, the People view is not yet enabled, thanks to some last-minute bug that was discovered. One gets the new Outlook by signing up to the Office 'Insider Fast' channel, and after the new version downloads and installs, one can switch back and forth by toggling a 'New Outlook' switch. If the user attempts to use a feature such as the People view, a message pops up inviting the user to switch back, wrecking the fluid experience but that is what one gets for trying a preview.
The current preview is not fully usable, but fortunately switching back is quick
The problem of Outlook on Windows being different from Outlook on Mac will get worse
Microsoft has not specified a release date for the new Outlook Mac but a few things are clear. First, it will be the best Outlook yet, perhaps on any platform, in terms of appearance and design. This is not a high bar: Outlook on Windows is a mess from a user interface perspective, and has dialogues buried within that have not changed for decades. Performance also looks promising.
Second, Outlook Mac will be focused on cloud, especially Office 365, though it also already has good support for Google mail. Teams integration will also be strong and Microsoft has demonstrated features like converting an event to a Teams meeting, handy in times of lockdown.
Lastly, the problem of Outlook on Windows being different from Outlook on Mac will get worse. What if Microsoft replaces the Windows version with a similarly rebuilt product? Perhaps it will; but the difficulty is that Outlook is baked into the Windows ecosystem and forms part of workflows, some automated with COM technology, that will break if Microsoft replaces it. Custom add-ins, VBA projects, ancient APIs that remain for legacy reasons, all mean this will be a tricky application to replace.
Creating a meeting in the new Outlook Mac: just drag in the calendar and this simple dialog pops up
Limit Email Download Outlook Mac
Outlook on Windows is perhaps the most annoying of Microsoft's Office products, yet the job it does is a critical one, bringing together email, calendar and tasks, and providing collaboration features like shared calendars and contacts. Some legacy features, like Exchange public folders, made their way into Office 365 where they have become something of a burden to Microsoft.
The new Outlook for Mac, when it comes out of preview, will represent Microsoft's current thinking on how Outlook should look and behave in the cloud era, but it will be some time before that can apply in Windows as well. ®
Get ourTech Resources
Mail User Guide
You can include photos, documents, and more when you write messages.
When you attach images or PDF documents, you can mark them up in Mail before you send your message.
Include photos and other files in emails
In the Mail app on your Mac, do any of the following:
- Click the Attach button in the toolbar, locate a file (you may need to click the sidebar button to see additional folders), select it, then click Choose File.You can also drag files from the desktop, the Finder, or an app into your message.
- For photos, click the Photo Browser button in the toolbar, then drag a photo into your message. You can also take a photo or scan documents, or add a sketch, using your nearby iPhone or iPad.
By default, Mail inserts images at their actual size. If different sizes are available, you can choose one from the pop-up menu located on the right side of the message header.
Send large email attachments using Mail Drop
You can use Mail Drop to send files that exceed the maximum size allowed by your email account provider. Mail Drop uploads large attachments to iCloud, where they’re encrypted and stored for up to 30 days.
- If you have an iCloud account and you’re signed in to iCloud when you click Send, Mail automatically sends the attachments using Mail Drop. Mail Drop attachments don’t count against your iCloud storage.
- If you don’t have an iCloud account, or if you’re not signed in, Mail asks you whether to use Mail Drop (to always use Mail Drop select “Don’t ask again for this account”).
If a recipient uses Mail in OS X 10.10 or later, the attachments are included in your message. For other recipients, your message includes links for downloading the attachments, and their expiration date.
Download Outlook For Mac Free
You can turn Mail Drop on or off for an account. Choose Mail > Preferences, click Accounts, select the account, click Advanced, then select or deselect “Send large attachments with Mail Drop.”
See the Apple Support article Mail Drop limits.
Put email attachments at the end of messages
In the Mail app on your Mac, do one of the following:
Download Email Outlook Mac Os
- For the current message: Choose Edit > Attachments > Insert Attachments at End of Message.
- For all messages: From the Message viewer, choose Edit > Attachments > Always Insert Attachments at End of Message (a checkmark shows it’s on).
Include or exclude email attachments in replies
In the Mail app on your Mac, do one of the following:
- Include or exclude original attachments in a reply: In the toolbar of the message window, click the Include Attachment button or the Exclude Attachment button .
- Include or exclude original attachments in all replies: From the Message viewer, choose Edit > Attachments > Include Original Attachments in Reply (a checkmark shows it’s on). To turn it off and exclude attachments, choose the command again (the checkmark is removed).
Send email attachments to Windows users
In the Mail app on your Mac, try these suggestions:
- Send Windows-friendly attachments. To do so for all messages, choose Edit > Attachments, then select Always Send Windows-Friendly Attachments. For a specific message, click the Attach button in the toolbar of the new message window, then select Send Windows-Friendly Attachments (if you don’t see the checkbox, click Options in the bottom corner).
- Send documents as PDFs instead of in their original format.
- Use filename extensions (such as .docx for a Microsoft Word document).
- If the recipient sees two attachments (such as “MyFile” and “._MyFile”), the recipient can ignore the file with the underscore (such as “._MyFile”).
To display an attachment (such as a one-page PDF document or an image) as an icon, Control-click the attachment in your message, then choose View as Icon. To show the attachment again, Control-click it, then choose View in Place.
If the message size shown on the left side of the message header is red, the attachments are causing your message to exceed size limits set by your email account provider. Try reducing the number or size of attachments or use Mail Drop.
See alsoEmail a webpage shared from Safari in Mail on Mac