Spotlight: Free Outlook Productivity Tools
November 16, 2009 • JP • 2 Comments • Rate This Article
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As most of us that use Outlook know, it's easy to get swamped by dozens of unimportant emails, or suffer from Attachment OverloadTM. Here is a list of free (or suggested donation) Outlook add-ins and productivity tools you may not have known about that will help you organize the clutter and get back to getting things done.
OutlookTools
Written by Robert Sparnaaij (Outlook MVP), OutlookTools "is a support and advanced settings tool for Microsoft Office Outlook." With this advanced tool you can:
- Easy access to Outlook settings and data folders
- Easy access to troubleshooting tools
- Start Outlook with a startup switch
- Clear the Most Recently Used lists
- Make the New Mail Alert stay up for longer than 30 seconds
- Unblock attachments
- Hides options not available for your Outlook version
And even better, Robert is getting ready to release an upgrade to OutlookTools with even more functionality!
OutlookTempCleaner
Another free tool from HowTo-Outlook, OutlookTempCleaner lets you clear out the temp folder Outlook uses to open attachments (among other things, but that's my favorite use for this tool).
Outlook add-ins from Microsoft
Microsoft offers a few free add-ins for Outlook.
1: The Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook "adjusts Microsoft Office Outlook calendar items when there has been a change in time zone definitions (saved in Microsoft Windows) or if the user is making a permanent move to another time zone."
2: The Personal Folders Backup add-in will make periodic backups of your PST file for you, so you'll know those important emails are safe.
3: This one isn't specifically for Outlook, but Office 2007 users can download and use the Save as PDF or XPS add-in. According to Microsoft, "this download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs."
4: The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector add-in lets you use Outlook to connect to and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts. If you're into that sort of thing.
OutlookSpy
Does every Outlook tool that starts with the word 'Outlook' have to have no spaces in it (cf. OutlookSpy, OutlookTools, OutlookTempCleaner, etc)?
OutlookSpy is billed as "the Ultimate Outlook Developer Tool. CDO, Outlook Object Model, Extended MAPI." And it delivers. Big time. They say the devil is in the details, and this add-in provides so many details about your Explorers and Inspectors, your stick-shaking arm will hurt. The UI can be overwhelming (think: a huge bucket of LegoTM bricks) but it's what you need if you plan to develop in Outlook.
Redemption
Redemption is an object library primarily used for two purposes (that I can see):
- to avoid the Outlook object model guard, and
- to access properties (and therefore to do things) that are inaccessible from the Outlook object model.
These are tremendous benefits, but you'll have to learn how to interact with Redemption in order to take advantage. Fortunately, there are a lot of code samples on Dmitry's site.
Note that Redemption is free for personal use only. See the download page for details.
Lookout
Lookout is a search tool for Outlook that indexes your emails and contacts for easy searching. It's been converted to Windows search by Microsoft, but you can still find the original here. There's even a description of how to use it in Outlook 2007.
These are free tools, but remember that developers spend time working on these products, and make great efforts to ensure they work well. Donations are gladly accepted by these authors for their work. Help keep these products free by visiting the above sites, and if you download and use their software, a donation will let them know that you appreciate the product and want the developer to continue to enhance it.
Bonus: For even more free Outlook productivity tools, visit Slipstick, select a category and look for the word "free" on the page.
Do you know of any other free or donation-supported Outlook tools? Add a link in the comments.
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Interesting list of tools. Thanks you.