New features in Outlook Web Access enhance its value as a productivity tool.

Microsoft has made many productivity improvements in Exchange server with the release of its 2010 version, many of them in Outlook Web Access (OWA).

One improvement that’s bound to improve productivity is the introduction of a conversation view in OWA. Rather than displaying a list of individual messages, OWA will associate them in groups called conversations.

The latest message in the conversation is displayed at  the top of the grouping with the rest of the messages in the thread appearing below it. It’s a quick way to weed your inbox.

Messages in the conversation may be located in other folders. Those locations are displayed with the message in the conversation listing. What’s nice about  conversation view is that in addition to displaying received messages in a thread, it’ll show you sent and deleted items in the thread, too.

The reading pane in OWA makes it easier to peruse your mail. Unread messages are fully displayed. As you finish reading them, you can collapse them. When you collapse a message, some of the redundant information about it is hidden creating a tighter display free from clutter.

Microsoft has also changed how messages are viewed in the list pane. In prior versions of OWA, you had to page through items in the inbox. Now you can continually scroll through items in the inbox through a feature called “Virtual List View.”

A common aggravation in email conversations is over use of “reply to all.” To remove that irritant in OWA, Microsoft has added an “ignore conversation” option. That will take a conversation and throw it into the trash. Thereafter, any messages that are part of that conversation will automatically be sent to the circular file, too. However, messages sent directly to you will still appear in your inbox and not be treated as part of the thread.

If you don’t want to take the extreme measure of trashing a conversation, but don’t want it appearing in your inbox, you can move it to another folder. As in the ignore conversation option, messages sent directly to you will still arrive in your inbox.

Some unified communication features have also been incorporated into OWA. For instance, a “presence” indicator has been added to the interface. Your presence status–available, busy, do not disturb and so forth–can be changed from within OWA, or automatically set if you have Office Communications Server running in the background.

The presence status of others in your organization can also be viewed from within OWA. That allows you to check the availability of colleagues in the OWA navigation pane. The buddies list in the navigation pane looks the same as it does in the Communications Server client. You can click a colleague’s name and start a chat with him or her. Multiple conversations  can be displayed in pop-out windows, as can be done in popular chat clients like Google Talk.

The presence feature is spread throughout OWA. So if you’re reading a colleague’s email, and you want to talk with him or her immediately, you can right-click in the message and a chat window will appear for that person. You don’t have to access a contact list or be in the reading pane or open a particular message to chat with someone. You can reach the right person at the right time through a context menu.

Another nifty feature of OWA in Exchange 2010 is its integration with voice mail. Voice mails can be displayed in the software. Because Exchange 2010′s unified messaging features include the ability to turn voice messages into text, the text of messages, as well as a tool for playing the audio of the message, appears in OWA. That’s very handy when you’re in a situation where you can’t listen to voice mail–a meeting, for instance–but need to check your voice mail for important calls. What’s more, callers will be automatically looked up in your stored contacts making it easier to respond to the voice mail by another means–chat or email–if an immediate response is necessary without picking up a phone.

In a concession to popular standards, an MP3 version of a voice mail message is attached to it when it appears in OWA. So if you’re accessing voice mail from a computer that doesn’t support Microsoft media player, you can still listen to your message.

With features like these, OWA in Exchange 2010 has become an even more powerful tool for making email a more productive application.