Microsoft Outlook is one of the most famous desktop email clients which allows you to read emails, schedule appointments, take notes, manage your contacts all from the confines of your desktop.
Outlook in itself is quite sufficient for most users but there are quite a few tools which make using Outlook a much better experience. In this post we will look at the top 12 add-ins for Microsoft Outlook which will make it more useful in your day to day life.
Xobni
If you have been using Outlook for quite some time you may be stuck with tons and tons of emails which may be difficult to find when you want. Xobni (our favorite add-in) is a Outlook plug-in that helps you organize you emails and quickens your search for email and attachments.
For those who think of the name as a bit weird, it is Inbox spelled backwards.
Xobni provides you with lots of features which include
- Lightning fast email search.
- Threaded Conversations.
- Email Analytics.
- Quick attachment discovery.
- Navigate your inbox by people.Blog
- Extracts Phone numbers from emails and associates it with contacts.
- Helps you easily schedule appointments with your contacts.
Download Xobni
Outlook Duplicate Item Remover
Over a period of time Outlook may contain lots of duplicate emails, events, contact information and notes. Tracking and removing the duplicate entries can become quite a hassle.
The problem with having duplicate entries for email, contacts, calendar and notes can be easily tackled with a very useful and handy add-in called Outlook Duplicate Item Remover (ODIR).
Read our review of Outlook Duplicate Item Remover to learn more about it.
Download Outlook Duplicate Item Remover
Taglocity
Another Outlook add-in which makes email overload a thing of the past. Taglocity allows you to add in the much needed feature of tagging emails, tasks, contacts and calendar entries.
Tags as most of you must know by now make your life much more easier with finding content and Taglocity adds that missing touch to Microsoft Outlook. Read more in our review of Taglocity.
Request Taglocity Beta Invite
Google Calendar Sync
Google Calendar Sync is not exactly a Microsoft Outlook add-in, but we recommended this utility for those who want to synchronize their calendars between multiple Outlook installations.
To synchronize your calendar between multiple Outlook installations download and install Google Calendar Sync on both PCs. You can then use your Google account as a central storage for calendar events and keep both your Outlook installations in sync.
When you add or update events in one PC, the Google Calendar Sync will automatically add it to your Google Account from where the software installed on the other PC will download the event and add it to your other Outlook installation. As simple as ABC.
Download Google Calendar Sync
Easy2Add
Easy2Add is a neat little add-in that allows you to quickly add events to your Outlook Calendar, the interface is quite similar to adding quick events to Google Calendar and can come in quite handy when you want to quickly add a event without opening the Outlook Interface.
You can type the events in plain English and Easy2Add will automatically take care of adding the event.
Download Easy2Add
Live Search Maps
Got an appointment in 10 minutes but don’t know the directions to get there the Live Search Maps add-in will direct you to your destination.
The Live Search Maps add-in shows you directions and travel times to your destinations all within the comfort of Outlook.
Download Live Search Maps
Social Networking Microsoft Outlook Add-Ins
If you are into social networking and don’t want to hop skip and jump to various websites to network with you friends and family, here are some add-ins that you save you time and keep you productive too.
OutSync
OutSync is a Microsoft Outlook add-in that will automatically sync photos of your friends from your Facebook account with those present in your Outlook contact list.
Download OutSync
FBLook
FBLook or Facebook for Outlook allows you to easily update your Facebook status from within Outlook. It also allows you to set the status to the song you are currently playing on Windows Media Player or iTunes. Read our review of FBLook.
Download FBLook
OutTwit
OutTwit is a tool that brings Twitter to Microsoft Outlook. Using the tool you can easily update your Twitter status and follow your friends from right within Outlook.
The tweets from your friends are saved as emails into a separate folder you choose. Read our review of OutTwit
Download OutTwit
Other tools Worth Mentioning For Microsoft Outlook
Outlook Personal Folders Backup
As the name suggests the Outlook Personal Folders Backup allows you to easily backup your PST (Personal Folder) files and store it in a safe location.
Learn More and Download Outlook Personal Folders Backup
Google Desktop
Want the precision and lightning fast search capabilities of Google Search for your Outlook email? Google Desktop Search is one of the best available options that will allow you to quickly find emails that are buried deep inside your archives without going through much trouble.
They always say when nothing works try Google and it holds true for Google Desktop search for Outlook emails too :).
Learn More and Download Google Desktop
OggSync
OggSync is another handy utility that will allow you to sync your Outlook contacts and calendar entry between Outlook and your Gmail account. The newer version supports all contact fields in your Gmail Address book.
Download OggSync
Summarizing
Well that’s a lot of useful add-ins to play around with but how can it be complete without you contributing your own useful add-ins to the list? I would love to hear what tools you use to make Outlook a better experience and definitely want to try it out. Do let me know about them through your comments.
जलस्रोतको धनी देश नेपालमा लोडसेडिङ किन बारम्बार हुन्छ ? प्रजातान्त्रिक १२-१३ वर्षेकालदेखि नेपालमा लोडसेडिङ मौलाएको छ। त्यसअघि नेपालमा यति धेरै जलविद्युत आयोजना सञ्चालनमा थिएनन् तर पनि लोडसेडिङ यति विधि थिएन (अहिले आठ घण्टा लोडसेडिङ छ) हुनसक्छ विद्युतिकरण पनि कम थियो तर भएको स्थानमा यति धेरै आपूर्ति बन्द हुने गरेको थिएन। नेपालमा शहरिकरण पनि बढ्दो गतिमा छ। पञ्चायतबाट बहुदलमा फड्को मार्दा नगरपालिका पनि धेरै थपिएका छन्। महानगरपालिका र उपमहानगरपालिका समेत बनेका छन्। 