Business & Office tools

I will introduce best 5 free Add-in and utilities for Microsoft Outlook.

1. Xobni

Microsoft Oulook Plug-in Xobni is one of the best Free Add-ins that provides various useful functionalities. It organizes all data based on a person’s profile showing all the email conversations and the list of attachments and even extracts contact numbers from the email signatures. Of course, it is not always 100% accurrate but very impressive. There are other functions such as Facebook feeds and Linked-in integration.

It is very useful and powerful add-in. If you have many emails and can’t find it but you know who sent it, Xobni is the answer.

Website: http://www.xobni.com/

2. Outlook Attachment Remover Add-in

Have you ever get tired of the slow and bulky Outlook Inbox folder? Your Inbox is too big that the Outlooks is so sluggish and crashes all the time. It’s time to reduce the size of your Outlook data file. But how? You don’t want to go through all the emails and delete the files one by one!

Free ‘Outlook Attachment Remover’ add-in is for saving and extracting attachments, decreasing the size of your Outlook data file. It’s very easy to use. You can extract all the bulky attachments and save into local hard drive. Then delete them from the Outlook data file which
will make Outlook run faster again. Make sure to compact the PST files after doing this to reduce the file size!

Website: http://www.kopf.com.br/outlook/

3. Outlook on the Desktop

Are you a fan of Outlook Calendar? Then you might want to try ‘Outlook on the Desktop’. It shows Outlook Calendar in the Desktop screen providing easy access to the entries. You can edit and drop files directly on it just like the Outlook.

Website: http://www.outlookonthedesktop.com/

4. DeskTask

Similar to Outlook on the Desktop, DeskTask shows Calender appointments and Task items on the Desktop but as list. This is just to view only, unable to modify the entries from the Desktop. But clean and simple. You can use ‘Win+D’ key to see the Desktop easily by minizing all the active windows.

Website: http://www.carthagosoft.net/desktask.htm

5. Google Calendar Sync

Of course, if you are using Outlook Calendar and other hand-held portable devices, there is high chance that you also use Google Calendar. And this sync utility from Google is a must to have to sync data between Outlook and Google Calendar. You can control sync from the Windows Tray Icon. Simple and Nice.
Website: Google Calendar Sync Website

There must be more good free utilities out there. As soon as I find them I will make sure update this list.

Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook is a book for the over-extended office worker whose workday feels out of control.

Thank you for visiting Hana & Sarah’s Freeware Blog.

There are so many online dictionary tools and software out there. But when you need to find a word right away, usually you can’t remember the website URL so you are wasting time searching for the website. ( Wikipedia.com is the most convenient and fast word lookup site , I guess)

Now here is the fastest way of looking up any word from the dictionary. Maybe not fastest, but the easiest for sure.

You need two software installed.

1. Dictionary desktop software
Of course, you will need to have a dictionary software that you can search right away. It can be any dictionary software that you like, but it has to be a desktop software, not online web application. I would like to suggest “The Sage” from the Sequence Publishing. It has an easy-to-use interface with so many options. Few functions that I like are the

History Lookup words are displayed as little boxes . So you can just click any to go back and recheck the meaning.
You can see the list of words while you typing. So you don’t have to exactly remember the word to look up.

During the setup, select the ‘shortcuts items’ when ‘Choose Components’ screen is showing.

The Sage link: http://www.sequencepublishing.com/thesage.html#download

2. Launchy
Wait , you think that you still have to click on the icons everytime you want to look up the words and that make it not easy? Just hold your horses.

You will need to setup Launchy if you haven’t yet. I highly recommend it. Probably my work efficiency has tripled after I installed Launchy. You can execute any program easily by typing few letters of the program name. It is a self-learning app that once you make a relation with a keyword and a program by selecting it from the suggested list, Launchy will show the program as the default next time you type the same keyword.

You can execute program , visit websites, or open folder very quickly by typing a keyword. However, you may want to adjust the options to fine tune to make it work properly.

Once installed, the default short cut keys are ‘Alt + Space’ to show the search dialog window which is skinable. One more ‘Alt+Space’ will hide it.

Launchy Link : http://launchy.net/

Now are you ready?
Goto Start Menu and All Programs menu and goto TheSage folder . Right mouse click on the ‘TheSage’ icon and select ‘Create shortcut’. Then a shortcut with name ‘The Sage(2)’ will be created . Once again, right mouse on that short cut and select ‘Rename’ to change the name to ‘dic’ or any word that you can come up righ away.

Now ‘Alt+Space’ to show Launchy popup window. Right mouse click on top part of the window and select ‘Rebuild Window’ menu. After that type in ‘dic’ in the text field. Maybe the default program may not be the ‘dic’ shortcut we just created , but in the list showing right under, you will be able to find the entry. Select ‘dic’ shortcut from the list to execute the program. Now the setup is completed. See below screen cast for the demo.

Whenever you want to look up a word . Just ‘Alt+Space’ and type ‘dic’. It will bring the dictionary software and you can continue typing the word to look up the word. No mouse movement is needed at all. Just typing.