What’s the beginning of a new year without looking back and coming up with the Top 10 list of something involving the previous year? Exactly! So, here’s the list of the Top 10 Posts of 2006 on the Office 12 Watch site.

If you’re new to this site this year, welcome, hopefully you can look through these posts and get an idea of what’s to come in the future from Office 12 Watch. Of course there will be less speculation and “what if’s”, and more tutorial and “how do I?” information coming down the pike.

1. Outlook 2007 Beta - Crashing
2. Windows Live Mail beta
3. Needed Office 2007 Feature
4. Desktop Search Error
5. Microsoft corrects font pic for Segoe UI
6. Paul Thurrott Office 12 beta Screenshot Galleries
7. Office Live Experience
8. Losing My “Favorite” Folders
9. iWork vs. Office?
10. HTML Display in Outlook 2007

Welcome to 2007! It’s great to have you here and I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.

Instant search is truly instant, using what Microsoft calls “word wheeling” to search as you type. Instant search is also context specific. That means that the search query you type will search the current email view by default, but you can expand the search to include any and all email folders very easily. Search results, naturally, replace the default Inbox view in the second pane.

I’ve found instant search to be one of my absolute favorite new features in Outlook 2007, and while it would be easy to wonder aloud why it took so long, let’s just be happy it’s finally there: With the proliferation of personal information and email we must now manage, this is a must-have feature.

The search function within Outlook is a great feature and one that’s definitely on the list to become a regularly used component.

As always, Paul Thurrott continues to provide some of the best reviews and writing available on Office 2007. In this second part, the focus is his experience and thoughts with Outlook 2007. Other areas that he covers in this review include:

• To-Do Bar
• Color categories
• Better task integration
• Attachment previews
• Auto Account Setup
• RSS integration
• Compatibility with previous PST formats

Keep the information and insight coming Paul on all of your reviews.