If you run Outlook, you probably are aware that it is a resource hog. One reason for the large amounts of memory usage is because, by default, Word is set as the email editor. While you do gain the benefits of Word when you have this set, it comes at the cost of 20-40 MB of memory usage.

My recommendation is to change your default Outlook editor from Word to Rich Text Format. When you make this change, you get most of the features of Word without the bloat:

1. Open Tools > Options.
2. Mail Format tab.
3. Change the setting “Compose in this message format” to Rich Text.
4. Uncheck both boxes which start with “Use Microsoft Office Word…”

Again, you will lose some functionality when you do this, but the benefits are well worth it.