Microsoft Outlook 2010 is in beta stage and Microsoft is asking for your feedback. Here is a chance to have your say and tell Microsoft that they are making a big mistake that will set email design back 5 years. So far 6,000 tweets has shown its support for the cause.

Microsoft recently posted some details on its Outlook MSDN blog about the upcoming Outlook 2010, part of the new Office 2010 software package. In the blog it says:

Outlook 2010 represents the latest in our work to creating a powerful and intuitive e-mail client, providing you with a rich set of e-mail management tools to manage your personal and professional life while staying in touch with the people that matter most. New innovations in user interface, search, and people photos are just some of the bold, exciting experiences that await Outlook 2010 users. In this next wave, Outlook will make accessing your e-mail and connecting with people wherever you are – on whatever device you choose – seamless and easier than ever before.

This sounds great, although it doesn’t say much in details. But when looking more closely at the features of the new Outlook it turns out that they are re-introducing Word as the rendering engine to display HTML emails. This, for those who remember, is what Outlook 97 used to do and with all the problems that came with it.

For anyone who is involved in designing and sending out email newsletters, this is a big setback.  Word has no support for CSS like float and position and background images and much more.

What does this mean? Well, you can see the difference in how an email with CSS is shown in Outlook 2000 and then how the same email will look in Outlook 2010 below:

So if you want to make your voice heard and stop this madness, head over to a site called Outlook’s broken – lets fix it and follow the instruction. Or simply tweet a message to your following and include http://fixoutlook.org somewhere in your tweet.