The new Hotmail is the efficient way to do e-mail. Here are some of the new features that will help you get more done and stay productive.
De-clutter your inbox
When you first login to Hotmail, you want to be able to see the most important messages first and not become buried in clutter. That's when one-click filters come in handy.
Let's say you only want to see notifications from your social networks like Facebook or MySpace. Just click on the filter at the top of your inbox and instantly, you're able to view exactly what you're after. If you just want to catch up on e-mails from your Hotmail contacts, there's also a filter for that.
Hotmail now has a new "Sweep" function that works exactly the way it sounds. Just select e-mails that you perceive as spam or even e-mails with a similar theme for sweeping into your trash. You can also set up rules so important e-mails from specific senders always end up in folders you've previously set up.
Conversation threading is another new feature to help you organise your inbox. If you turn it on, Hotmail keeps conversations with your contacts grouped together.
This means you won't be overwhelmed by replies and you can see all the e-mails on the one topic, shown in one place.
Save time on everyday e-mail tasks
Gone are the days when you had to spread your e-mail attachments over three or four separate emails due to file size restrictions. If you use e-mail to share photos or videos with your friends (and who doesn't) the new Hotmail is about to simplify your life.
Hotmail now lets you send up to 200 photos or other files in a single e-mail, up to 10GB in total size. Once you've sent your photos and your friends have viewed them in the new slideshow or thumbnail format, just store them online in Hotmail's SkyDrive.
With 25GB of free storage space, you'll have plenty of photos uploaded and will have had to have done some serious travelling before SkyDrive is even close to capacity.
Hotmail's new ActiveView works with partners like YouTube, Flickr and Hulu. So when you receive a video link of your friend's favourite YouTube clip, ActiveView will show you a thumbnail preview. If you like what you see, you won't be sent to all corners of the Net to view it — just watch it right then and there, all from inside your Hotmail inbox.
Use Microsoft Office anywhere
Imagine one of these scenarios:
- Your laptop battery dies just before an important presentation.
- You urgently need to work on a Word document while on a quick getaway interstate.
- You're seeking some feedback on a PowerPoint file before tomorrow's 9am presentation.
Enter the new Hotmail and each of these crises no longer sends your stress-o-meter skyrocketing.
Hotmail now gives you access to Office Web Apps, which is all the Microsoft Office programs like Word, PowerPoint and Excel all available from within Hotmail.
Just login to Hotmail from your PC or Mac, create or edit a document with any of the Office programs you need and e-mail it off to where it's got to go. That's about as difficult as it gets.
Files can then be stored in SkyDrive so you can say goodbye to your laptop carry bag, because you'll no longer need it.
The new Hotmail will be here very soon and it promises to keep you productive and save you time each and every time you use it.
For more on the new Hotmail, grab a sneak peek by watching the video below.
Look for many more updates over the coming weeks as we start delivering them to your Hotmail account.
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