In earlier versions of Outlook there was an option to “Use Microsoft Word as your Message editor”. This meant other applications, like MindManager & SnagIt, which had Word integration also worked with e-mails. I often used MindManager “Send Topic to Word” and SnagIt “Send Capture to Word” while composing email messages, just like any other Word document.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 uses the HTML parsing and rendering engine from Microsoft Office Word 2007 to display HTML message bodies. There has been some flack about this as Word 2007 isn’t as good at rendering HTML as the old I.E. based rendering engine. That aside, the Message Editor does have “Word’like” features, even uses Word 2007 components if installed (see table in extended post), but crucially it’s NOT Word.
It’s also the only editor as there is no longer a “Use Word…” option. This means applications that integrate with Word will not find the Outlook 2007 Message Editor and integrate with email anymore. 
Both Mindjet & TechSmith are aware of this and I expect they’ll integrate the new editor with their applications in future updates. You can still copy/paste to the Message editor but it’s not as elegant. Something to consider if you are planning to upgrade to Outlook 2007.
The Outlook 2007 Message Editor functionality with & without Word 2007 installed.
|
Feature |
Without Word 2007 installed |
With Word 2007 installed |
|
Message thread shading |
yes |
yes |
|
Panning through threads on Tablet PCs |
yes |
yes |
|
Hit highlighting for Instant Search |
yes |
yes |
|
New and improved fonts |
yes |
yes |
|
Smart Tag recognition |
yes |
yes |
|
New Save as options |
yes |
yes |
|
Quick Styles gallery |
yes |
yes |
|
Themes |
no |
yes |
|
Auto-formatting of bulleted and numbered lists |
no |
yes |
|
Auto-formatting of tables |
no |
yes |
|
Proofing tools |
no |
yes |
|
SmartArt drawing, charting, and diagramming tools |
no |
yes |
|
Captions |
no |
yes |
|
Equation Builder |
no |
yes |
|
Word Art |
no |
yes |
