A KeyFinder may be able to find the Office key, though if an OEM it may report an incorrect key(see b.)
If an OEM version:
a. and preinstalled, the original owner has/had the key and/or cd.
b. the company that placed the software on the machine may have used an image for the entire hard drive contents. The key in the registry and possibly the Office key Jellybean(?) found was their key. If it did not work, you need the key provided to the original owner.

You've yet to mention if this was an OEM version or a retail version.
- If retail, you should have received the cd as part of the transfer of software.

Registering Office does not require a key, activation does.

Finally, are you sure Outlook is part of the Office version you have. It is not included in all Office versions.

You might wish to move further discussion to the appropriate Office forum(this group is for Outlook Express)

Good Luck.

...winston

"Stephen930" wrote in message ...
:I do have other elements of Office working. Excel, Word etc, it's just
: Outlook I need to register.
:
: When these are opened, I very quickly see a key on the page just before the
: application opens. If this Key is common to all Office products, can I: a)
: automatically use this key and b) capture this key somehow, as it opens too
: fast to be able to read it.
:
: The laptop was bought pre - owned, so I do not have CD or box.