M7: new code shipping soon – not yet here!

M7 isn’t shipped yet, but it’s shipping soon.

We’re still listening: How do we decide what goes into each release? We have a huge list of all of the features we’d like to add based on feedback from customers through our blog, beta newsgroups, satisfaction surveys, server data, usability tests, “dogfooders” at Microsoft, and our own team members. We prioritize features based on customer impact and our business strategy. We pick the most urgent items that we can design, build, and test in the milestone.

Users like (and unlike) you shape our priorities: If there’s a feature that blog readers asked for that you don’t see yet, it’s usually because other types of users were asking for a different feature. Sometimes the feature takes more than one cycle to build. We can’t tell you exactly when your feature will arrive because we re-evaluate user and business needs in every release.

Each release also includes changes that make Windows Live Mail faster and more reliable. Thanks for your help and patience as beta testers!

New M7 code is almost ready for you to use on Windows Live Mail. What’s new?

Just what you asked for: Checkboxes are in Windows Live Mail!!! You can now select messages the same way you’re used to in Hotmail. Some of you like to select multiple messages using shift-click or control-click. You can still do that, or you can use checkboxes.

Signing in to Windows Live Mail just works better.

Set-up wizard when you use Windows Live Mail for the first time – now it’s easier to use
New loading page (with a link to try the basic version if your connection is slow)
Today page now has your storage meter, updated contacts, and updated Spaces
Search structured query syntax now makes it easier for you to find messages. Try searching for: “won from:ebay” to easily locate the message about that auction. You can try subject:, cc:, to:, from:, replyto:, and body:, and folder:.

Composing a message is a richer, customized experience.

Photo upload tool just like in Hotmail
Rich text signatures lets you add fonts, colors, and emoticons (available in Options à Mail and Junk E-mail section)
Can turn off spell check from the compose page

Windows Live Mail is available to more people.

Scaled to 6 million users!
12 New languages: Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Danish, Finnish, Thai, Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, and Polish.
The basic version now has: shortcut for calendar, next/previous message buttons, editable contacts, and a toolbar at the bottom of each message

You can take your contacts with you and find them easily.

· Contact importer lets you import contacts from Outlook and Outlook Express (download from Customize menu)

· Print button on contact page lets you print your entire address book

· “You” contact on contacts page lets you manage contact information that you can share with your friends

· Improved search box now searches full contact name, address, and primary phone number

- Ellie Powers-Boyle, program manager

Like this:

Be the first to like this post.

team posts

July 17, 2006

100 Comments

100 comments

Attila

Just a few things about the Beta testing version:
*when I get a newspetter, the HTML link that would direct me to another page is not clickable, inactive.
*the "Calendar" function does not work for some reason.
*I think it would be nice to see how much free space and overall space I have on my account on the top of the field also
*The new system is somehow…maybe I\’m wrong…slower than the older Hotmail version was. (it takes longer for the system to upload another mail feature like "Calendar" or "contacts" for example. It takes a little while for the page to upload.
*A new useful feature I think could be the calendar\’s reminder feature, that lets its user display their own reminders in a previously adjusted time. Maybe it has already existed in Hotmail too, I just didn\’t know about it.
*It would be nice if users could adjust the background of their own Windows Live Interface…be it a nicen colour, or even a picture (their own picture, or a new feature: selecting a background from Windows Live)
*Spelling check would be a powerful feature when composing a new mail

*It would be nice wo see it within the mail if the person sending you an e-mail has Messenger (MSN or Yahoo) availability, and if he/she is online at the moment when I\’m reading her mail. Clicking on a small icon that displays her Messenger status within the mail could open a new chat Window with the sender of the mail in Windows Live Messenger.
*Above the sender\’s e-mail text field, there could be a separate button that could say "Add person to Contact List". This could automatically copy the sender\’s mailing address and would redirect the user to the "Contacts" page where he/she could add more information about the sender.

*Displaying the image of the user who has sent me a mail is a fun feature! However there should be an option of letting me view the other person\’s display photo only if she allows me to do so. In other words, when I click on her photo, a pop up window should there could the a list of the following features (in a roling down menu): 1."Send a request to ….@hotmail.com to allow you to see her display image. 2. Allow her to see my image 3. Do not allow her to see MY display image.

And one more thing, and it\’s related to the Yahoo and MSN Messenger (great idea) parthership. Even though text messaging works between the two systems, but if the user (let\’s say a Hotmail user) wanted to send a file to, or engage in a Webcam conversation with the other person\’s Messenger system, (Hotmail with Yahoo, or the other way around) it\’s not possible, only the text messaging works. But how fun it would be!

Also, Signing in to Windows Live Messenger and Mail works, but it\’s slower.

Hotmail team blog archive