The first message one could consider email was sent more than 30 years ago, and that’s probably when people began associating angst and uncertainty with the words “Inbox” and “unread messages.” The tools available to read and send emails have advanced considerably since then, but what you actually do with all that chatter, without eating up entire days of work time, is up to you. Luckily, we’ve covered a wealth of filtering and processing methods and software tweaks that make email less stressful and time-consuming over the years, and a list of our top 10 productive email boosters is after the jump.
Microsoft Outlook has three “risk levels” it can apply to attached files, which determines whether it warns you before downloading, tries its best to block you entirely, or just lets a file be grabbed without comment. If it doesn’t know what kind of file is attached, however, it prompts, which can be annoying for workers who regularly pass around certain file types. The gHacks tech blog explains how you can set Outlook to see files of any kind as low-risk, through a registry hack. Details of the hack after the jump, but be sure to back up your registry before marching forward.
Windows only: Never email another Microsoft Office document from Outlook that includes private hidden data again with the SendShield Outlook plug-in. We’ve all heard the horror stories of revisions, comments and author notes revealing more than the document sender intended, like when a Google employee inadvertently published internal secrets in the notes of a PowerPoint slideshow. The SendShield Outlook plug-in scans office documents you attach to new messages for hidden data and alerts you if there’s potentially sensitive info included, listing each item within Outlook’s interface. You can even delete the hidden data right within SendShield’s list, without modifying the original file, and scan documents attached to incoming messages as well. SendShield is a free download and works with Outlook 2003 and 2007—Windows only, of course. SendShield [via Geeks Are Sexy]
Windows only: Have your calendar available on the desktop as well as in the cloud with the Google Calendar Sync desktop tool, freshly released from the big G. Sync your primary calendar on your vanilla or Google Apps account to Outlook automatically at a refresh rate you define. Syncing can be one or two-way, meaning you can add and edit events in Outlook and have them sync to GCal or vice versa automatically. The only catch is that it only works with your primary calendar, not secondary ones. Google Calendar Sync is a free download for Windows only. (Of course, having Outlook helps.) This coupled with Gmail IMAP really makes Outlook a viable GApps client. Google Calendar Sync [via Lifehacker AU]
If you’re a Googlehead but you’re in a Microsoft environment at work, you will be happy to know that Google’s come up with a synching tool for GCal and Microsoft Outlook. The GCal product manager wrote about the tool on the Google blog today.
Google Calendar Synch is a two-way syching tool which lets you add events in either calendar. You can download it here.
You can choose 1 way or 2 way synching, and specify how often it should synch (every 10 minutes is the minimum).
Once you’ve set up Google Calendar Synch, you’ll be able to access the settings window by double-clicking on the calendar icon in the Windows System Tray.
Sounds great. I’m not running Outlook, but if you try it out please let us know how it works for you in comments.
Microsoft Outlook user and GTDer Scott Hanselman uses flags and search folders to clear his inbox. Scott writes: I also try to get to ZEB (Zero Email Bounce) every day or so. This is when you “bounce” up against zero emails in your inbox… This doesn’t mean that you’ve done all your tasks, instead it means you know what your tasks are. [...]Remember that your inbox is not storage, it’s a list of what hasn’t been categorized yet.
Hit the link to see the folders Scott uses to categorize his messages—in fact, his system isn’t far off from my Trusted Trio. ZEB (Zero Email Bounce) and a new Outlook Rule [Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen]
In response to our recent post on retrieving files on your Mac via email, Lifehacker reader and blogger Shantanu Goel built a Microsoft Outlook macro to perform the same function for the Windows crowd. Like the original AppleScript, Shantanu’s macro requires a “magic word” in the subject of the email to trigger the macro; then you need to know the full path to the file you want to retrieve. If you’re not that familiar with your filesystem, it’s probably not the solution for you. If you are familiar with the paths to your important files, though, this macro offers a great way to retrieve the file you forgot, and you can retrieve it anywhere you have email access. Remote File Access Through E-Mail [My Technophilic Musings via Shantanu.Goel]
Outlook user Adam Wright describes how he automatically filters incoming messages and uses flags to create a to-do list folder alongside his inbox. Outlook’s “Follow Up” folder (normally two folders below the “Inbox” folder) only shows emails with a follow-up flag assigned to it. By using follow-up flags, I can now use my “Follow Up” folder as my todo list (notice I changed the name of my “Follow Up” folder to “To Do”).
We like to separate our email from our to-do’s around here, but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Adam’s method could easily be used in any mail client that supports flags or tags (like Thunderbird), too. How Outlook keeps me organized [hi. this is the mediocre life of Adam Wright.]
Windows only: FedEx QuickShip is a freeware Microsoft Outlook toolbar that integrates your Outlook address book with FedEx shipments. That means creating a new shipment is as easy as clicking Ship and choosing your contact’s name from your address book. You can also track packages, check shipping rates, schedule pickups, find FedEx locations, and more with the FedEx toolbar. As Download Squad points out, the tool could use even tighter integration (for example, recognizing tracking numbers in emails), but if you do a lot of shipping at work and Outlook is your go-to email client, the QuickShip toolbar is a must-have. QuickShip is freeware, Windows only. QuickShip [FedEx via Download Squad]
Lifehacker alumnus Rick Broida posts a quick fix at the BNET blog for a quirk of Outlook 2003 that (still) hasn’t really been addressed—compressed .ZIP files don’t show up in the standard “Insert File” chooser used for email attachments. Rather than manually drag and drop every .ZIP file, Rick has this quick registry-tweaking fix:In Windows XP, click Start > Run, then type Command and hit Enter. In Vista, click Start, type Command and hit Enter. Type regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll Wait for a confirmation box to appear. Click OK, then type Exit into the Command window to close it.
As always, making a backup of your registry file before changing it is highly recommended.
Outlook Fix: Attach Zip Files to Outgoing E-Mail [BNET]
