Monday, May 22, 2017

9 helpful Outlook add-ins for Office 2003, 2010 and more

PC Magazine has compiled a selection of useful Outlook add-ins – including freeware, but also some costly extensions. Here are our tips


1. Automatic contact setting


Anyone who maintains his Outlook contacts will not want to miss the address assistant (add-in-world.com, free of charge) after a short time. If you select an address block in e-mails, on web pages, in Word or PDF documents, the tool analyzes information such as salutation, company, street, city, telephone and e-mail


2. Smartphone data matching


MyPhoneExplorer (fjsoft.at/en) connects Outlook to Android devices. If the freeware is configured accordingly, the address book and calendar entries are synchronized with each connection between PC and smartphone via USB cable, Bluetooth or WLAN. On the way, new entries and appointments will end up in Outlook.


3. Preview of attached images


The free SmartTools Image Preview (add-in-world.com) extends Outlook by a preview for graphics - a feature that Microsoft has still not integrated. Instead of viewing the images attached to an email, you can quickly view and save all attachments, or forward them to other recipients.


4. Overview of all file attachments


The Outlook Attach View (nirsoft.net, free) searches mail folders for messages with file names and gives an overview table of the hits. Now you can select one or more attachments at the same time, save them in any folder, and then delete Outlook in the mailbox.


Apple's iCloud extension has a disadvantage: You can not choose the contact or appointment folder in Outlook not freely. A new mailbox is always set up in Outlook, and the existing contacts are copied to it. As a result, other add-ons that access the default folders will no longer work. With CodeTwo Sync for iCloud (codetwo.de, 16 Euro) one can select contacts, calendars and tasks freely and match with the iCloud. So iPhone and iPad with Outlook remain the same.


The 30 euro add-on 1-click duplicate delete (easy2sync.de) finds and removes duplicate mails and contacts as well as multiple appointments in Outlook. Different criteria can be set as a filter, such as date, subject and sender. The duplicates can be displayed and checked in a list before deletion. The add-on also allows you to merge contacts. This is useful when you have two entries with private or business addresses, mails, and numbers to a contact.


To automatically synchronize calendars, tasks, and contacts with an Android device, Gsyncit (fieldstonsoftware.com, $ 20) is the first choice. After the setup, the add-on Outlook will now match your Google account - the calendar and the contacts from the PC will then be available on the Android device. Entries created on the way are automatically applied to Outlook.


Since Outlook stores mails, appointments and addresses centrally in a PST file, all information is lost in case of loss or damage. Outlook Backup Assistant (priotecs.com, 20 Euro) saves not only the PST file, but also signatures, contacts, address books, favorites, mail rules, junk mail lists and settings


Spamfighter for Outlook (spamfighter.com) scans every incoming mail for spam. The tool is based on a community filter, which is maintained by eight million users according to the manufacturer. If several mails are marked as unwanted, they are placed on the blacklist. In addition, Spamfighter uses spam detection of typical patterns and language filters. The free version (Pro version: 25 Euro) for an account displays advertising in outgoing mail.


5. Outlook synchronization with the iCloud


6. Clean duplicate mails and contacts


7. Synchronize Outlook with the Google Account


8. Back up important Outlook files regularly


9. Detect and filter unwanted messages

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