Microsoft Office Tutorials: Introduction to Outlook Mobile Service

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Introduction to Outlook Mobile Service

Outlook Mobile Service is a new feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 that you use to create and send text messages as well as multimedia messages to a mobile device from within Outlook in a manner similar to e-mail messages.

Advantages of Outlook Mobile Service

Two ways to communicate with your colleagues, business partners, and family are e-mail messages and your mobile phone. Both have their advantages, but managing your contacts, correspondence, and appointments by using two different media can be cumbersome.

Outlook Mobile Service makes it easier to use both these media and is fully integrated with Outlook. With Outlook Mobile Service, composing and sending a text or multimedia message is now as quick and easy as creating and sending an e-mail message. After the message is sent, you can see it in the Sent Items folder in your Inbox.

Note: Multimedia message functionality is not available to wireless service subscribers in the United States. The Outlook Mobile Service is restricted to text messages only in the United States.

By using Outlook Mobile Service, you can send a message both as an e-mail message and as a mobile message to multiple contacts at the same time. You can stay informed when you are away from the office because Outlook Mobile Service can forward the e-mail messages and calendar appointments that you choose directly to your mobile phone.

In addition, you can receive messages from a mobile phone directly in your Outlook Inbox, use a mobile address book that has information about all your mobile contacts, and redirect summaries of your Outlook Calendar to your mobile phone.

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How Outlook Mobile Service works

Outlook Mobile Service works with the mobile service provider for your mobile phone to provide you with a seamless communication experience. After you send your mobile message from your computer, it goes to the Web service for Outlook Mobile Service, which is hosted by your mobile service provider, and is then sent to the mobile phones that you choose.

If your message recipients want to reply, they can do so from their respective mobile phones. The messages sent by the recipients are handled by their respective mobile service providers and sent back to the Web service for Outlook Mobile Service. From there the messages are sent back to your e-mail Inbox, your mobile phone, or both, depending on the preferences you choose.

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Outlook Mobile Service features

Complete integration with Outlook

After it is installed, Outlook Mobile Service becomes a part of Outlook, with options for mobile messages available along with the options for e-mail messages. The mobile messages that you send will be saved in your Sent Items folder, just like the e-mail messages that you send. The mobile messages that you receive will be sent to your Inbox if you want them to be, just like regular e-mail messages. You can also save mobile messages in the Drafts folder for later use.
Mobile text and multimedia messages sent directly from your computer

Outlook Mobile Service helps you create text and multimedia messages on your computer. Type the message that you want, add pictures or sounds to your multimedia message if you want, and preview the message before you send it.

Note: Multimedia message functionality is not available to wireless service subscribers in the United States. The Outlook Mobile Service is restricted to text messages only in the United States.
E-mail messages, reminders, and calendar summaries forwarded to your mobile phone

You can configure your Outlook Mobile Service account to forward e-mail messages and calendar appointments to your mobile phone when you are away from the office.
Both e-mail and mobile messages sent at the same time

With Outlook Mobile Service, you can send a message to mobile phones and e-mail addresses at the same time. The message will be sent as a mobile message to the mobile phones and as an e-mail message to the e-mail addresses. There is no need to send the message twice.
A new mobile address book

A mobile address book that lists information about your mobile contacts is created when you create an Outlook Mobile Service account. Contacts with mobile phone number information in your Outlook Address Book will be added to this address book automatically.
AutoResolve contacts

If you enter partial names when sending a mobile message, the AutoResolve feature will search for the contacts that match your entry and complete them.