In this instructional video, Randy Dean, an Email Sanity Expert, clarifies the often‑confusing landscape of Microsoft Outlook by outlining five distinct Outlook experiences: (1) Outlook on the web (outlook.live.com), (2) the Windows built‑in Mail/Calendar app (the “Onboard” version), (3) the full Outlook desktop client installed locally via Microsoft 365 (the “Local Client”), (4) the Outlook mobile app for iOS/Android, and (5) Outlook for Mac. He walks through how to access each version, the core features they provide (email, calendar, contacts, tasks via Microsoft To Do, and integration with OneNote), and the performance or feature trade‑offs between cloud‑based and locally‑installed solutions. Dean strongly recommends heavy Microsoft 365 users adopt the full local client for its richer feature set and reduced reliance on constant cloud sync, while acknowledging that the lighter web, onboard, and mobile versions are suitable for occasional or on‑the‑go use. He also mentions the separate Outlook for Mac as a distinct platform. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action to visit his website, subscribe, and request supplemental PDF tip sheets.
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All right. Hi everybody. Randy Dean, Email Sanity Expert here. Hey, I'm hoping that this video might clear up a whole bunch of confusion out there. And this is funny because when I do my live sessions, a lot of times people are even afraid to ask this question. They sort of make the assumption that of course everybody knows this, and I don't think everybody knows this. Did you know that there's 4+1 versions of Microsoft Outlook? And this is causing some real issues for a few people who aren't super, super tech savvy. Let's talk about this because this might clear up a lot of questions for people. So now when we talk about this, I want to just share— whoa, geez, I'm jumping around. Hey, let's try this again. I'll slow down a little. There's the web Outlook. Let's, let's take a look at the web Outlook. You get to that by using the website outlook.live.com, and if you're logged in, you'll get into your Microsoft Outlook inbox, but you'll also have access to your calendar and your contacts and Microsoft To Do, where your task list resides, plus the other Microsoft apps down here utilizing your browser. So that's one option. Another option that you have is what I call the Onboard app version, and I got to this— this is the mail, but notice that you can also go down to calendar and contacts and, and tasks. Here's my calendar. You can get to this by going down to your Start menu and either clicking on calendar or maybe paging down and clicking on Mail. Now, these are two relatively, I would say, somewhat stripped-down versions of Outlook that are basically hosting all the data that you're using out on the cloud. Now, there's a third version, which is right here. It's called the Outlook Local Client version. Now, some of you may remember this more like Outlook 2010, Outlook 2016. This is the one that I strongly recommend people that are paying for a Microsoft 365 subscription to download and use on their PC because this is the feature-loaded version. Now, a big part of the program is actually hosted right here on the PC, and what that means is that it can do more and it doesn't have to rely so much on the transfer of data back and forth from the cloud to do some of the things that you need to do. This is equivalent to the version that used to be on the CD-ROMs that you used to have to load in to, to be able to get it. And how do you get this? Now you go down here to the bottom and go to your Office marker. And then when you go in here, you'll see you've got access to your apps down the side. But this is right where you get it. You go to Install Office, and that'll give you the option to install not only the full Microsoft Outlook local client, but also the Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and maybe even Access local clients too. So that way you can use the full feature versions of these powerful Microsoft Office tools. And if you're a heavy user, this is what I'm recommending that you use. Now, that being said, these other versions, they can— you can check an email, reply to an email, add something to your calendar, maybe add something to your task list, quickly look up information on a contact. You can do that from here. You can do that from here. So you're just doing light usage, or you're logging in from a different location, or you don't want to go through all of the hoo-ha of the really complicated onboard program. Yeah, you can use these. But if you want to get— take advantage of a lot of the tips that I've been sharing in my other videos, this is the one you want to have. This is the one that can really do the cool stuff. All right, so And by the way, I said, you know, there's 4+1. Don't forget, there's also even the Outlook app. You can see it right there on your phone. And if you open this thing up, look at the bottom, you can actually get access to not only your email but your calendar. And if you use the little magnifying glass, you can get to your contacts. And then of course you can get the Microsoft To Do app to have your task list. And the OneNote app to keep your notes. And if you use the notes in Outlook, you can use the sticky notes little area in the OneNote app on your phone to get to your notes in Outlook. All right. Oh, and wait, there's yet one more. Don't forget that there's also Outlook for Mac, which is a completely different beast. So I hope this helps. Remember, this is the I really like. These ones you can use if you're doing something light. This is super handy, especially with Microsoft To Do and OneNote. And if you're using Outlook for Mac, maybe someday I'll make some videos about that too. I hope this clears up the confusion. Please leave comments. I really hope this helps people figure this thing out. I'd like to once again— let me, let me get this into full screen mode— I'd like to once again thank you for your time. If you'd like to learn more about me and my programs, including my full-length online streaming and webinar programs, go check out my updated website, randaldean.com. Of course, if you like these videos, please like, uh, consider subscribing to the channel to get more. If you want to get my bonus productivity PDF tip sheets on tools like Outlook and Google Workspace and Gmail and smartphones and tablets and general organize— organization and productivity, send me an email randy@randaldean.com and just put YouTube PDF in the subject line. And, uh, this might be one you want to share. This video today, you might want to share this with some people on your work group or team so that they finally figure out what they're actually using. Hope that helps. Thanks, everybody.
