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Microsoft Updates Outlook 2016 for Mac

Microsoft on Monday began rolling out some minor improvements to Office 365 users of Outlook 2016 for Mac.

The new features include read receipts, e-mail templates and the ability to create calendar events from e-mails. When creating a calendar event from an e-mail, users just drag an e-mail on top of a calendar time to reserve it. The e-mail's subject line becomes the topic, while the body copy goes into the "notes field" of the calendar, according to Microsoft's announcement.

Those three features are available to Outlook for Mac 2016 users running version 15.35 (build 170610) or greater.

Microsoft also promised another Outlook 2016 for Mac feature, but it will be arriving in July. It's a "Send Later" feature that will schedule e-mails to launch at a specified time. Once it's set, the feature works without requiring that the e-mail client be open.

The Send Later feature will be available in July to all Office 365 subscribers. It's available now, though, for Office Insider testers on the fast-release branch (namely, for those using version 15.36, build 170606 or later).

Microsoft also streamlined the "Add Account" experience in Outlook for Mac 2016. The setup process to add an account used to require specifying the account type, such as "Office 365 or Exchange, IMAP or POP." The Add Account feature now detects those settings automatically. This capability is accessible to Outlook for Mac users if they have version 15.34 (build 170515), which perhaps was released back in May, according to Microsoft's release history.

Despite Microsoft's more agile approach to software development with faster release cycles, the Office Mac side has always seemed to lag compared with its Windows cousin. Currently, Outlook 2016 for Mac has a 1.5-star approval rating among Microsoft Store commenters.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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