I honestly cannot remember how I made it through the days without email. I don’t know about you, but email has become such a vital part of my everyday life that picturing a world without it is just plain terrifying. In fact, using Microsoft Outlook consumes so much of my day that I could probably add contacts, search through my address book, and send emails blindfolded. Obviously, it’s no surprise that I owe Microsoft Outlook my life at this point, but what if my favorite program got even easier and even more beneficial to my mental health? With the three new Outlook add-ons that I discovered, it is possible to further feed my Outlook addiction. Now we all know there are plenty of Outlook add-on options, so it’s definitely necessary to pick a certain few so that they don’t hinder Outlook’s performance. I’ve narrowed it down to three that I simply can no longer live without.
* Xobni
o In all of its small, space-effective glory, Xobni, (inbox spelled backwards), offers the perfect contact searching capabilities. Without taking up much of your screen, (an annoyance we’ve all faced with various add-ons), Xobni can forward, reply, or open a message or file. It can even pull information from Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn, and Hoovers. Added data includes the stats of your email relationship with each of your contacts and their ranking in terms of email frequency.
* Gwabbit
o Yes, Gwabbit is $19.95, but it is an extremely helpful address book builder that gives you the most bang for your buck. Just by scouring the signature block of an email, Gwabbit is able to create a full contact record in Outlook’s address book that goes much more in depth than the information added by right clicking. As useful a program as Gwabbit is, it does have its few glitches. If someone entered their own information incorrectly, all on one line for example, then Gwabbit will record the contact as is. You may have trouble trying to correct the information since Gwabbit will see the contradiction between the email message and the information that you added. All things considered, Gwabbit is a handy little tool for the dependent users of an electronic roladex.
* Google Calendar Sync beta
o Google has such a massive electronic presence that it only makes sense that you should be able to sync your Google and Outlook calendars. This free beta program allows you to since events to or from one calendar to the other, and two-way syncing is also an option. You pick your time interval, and Google takes care of the rest.