I’m basically a Redmond loyalist, so I can probably help shed some light on this.

1.) Add Ons: Mapi Lab has more add-ons for Outlook and Outlook Express than you can shake a stick at. You can check them out at http://www.mapilab.com/. (I am in no way affiliated with Mapi Lab). Some of my favorite add-ons they ofer include Quick Templates for Outlook, and Attachment Management. There’s lots of Outlook Goodness, and the MapiLab toolbox contains 18 add-ons for $24.

2.) I think one of the most powerful email platforms for Windows is Outlook Live. It allows synchronization over multiple devices and applications (Outlook, Web Mail, PDA or Smartphone). It’s available for a resonable $49.95 a month.

3.) Lookout for Outlook, or Windows Desktop Search. Both applications offer snazzy searching within Outlook. I used to go for Lookout, but now I stick with Windows Desktop Search. It allows you to save search queries within Outlook (think Smart Folders).

I’ve got some new posts regarding Outlook use up my sleeve, but in the meantime, you can browse the following (Note: these links are to posts that I’ve written on my own blog): Handling My Email Contacts and Calendar My Current Email Solution: Outlook Live

I live in Outlook day in and day out. I’d be happy to be a guinea pig, or provide some feedback for anything related to your article.

When on Windows, I still use Thunderbird, with all of the same extensions & tricks that I have available to me under Linux and OS X.

The only reason to maybe use Outlook would be if you had to retrieve mail from an Exchange server.

By “Windows email” do you mean “Outlook” or “Outlook/Outlook Express” or “any email client which runs on Windows?”

I converted to Mac years ago but the ony thing I really miss is the PC only email client and newsreader Forte Agent - http://www.forteinc.com/

Will you also be doing Linux tips section, or just Mac/Windows?

My fu is the fu of the Firefox.

Oh, and gmail.

What is this nasty outlook thing so many people speak of?

Re: David Brunelle’s post, just a small typo: Outlook Live is $49.95 per year, not per month.

The first thing I do when sitting down at an XP box is to remove all of the Fisher-Price My First OS stuff and set all of the preferences back to ‘Windows Classic’.

The second thing I do is install VirtuaWin ( http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ ), because I can’t do real work without more than one screen’s worth of real estate. A window manager that spans more than one screen is something that *nixes have had for twenty years now - why can’t Microsoft get this one right?

Put me down as another happy Lookout user. I have been using the GTD outlook plugin available from David Allen’s web site for two years now and it is been a big help for me to keep down to Inbox Zero. Outlook sure takes a longggg time to open to process all of my inbox rules and the GTD plugin. The Using Outlook for GTD pdf from David is worth the $10 if you don’t want to pop for the Plugin.

Thunderbird would be great, but all of us Corporate warrors have to use the tools given. I just feel luckly that I am able to install Lookout and the Plugin.

I really love the Copernic desktop search to find text within (or attachments to) my Outlook e-mails, which is free (copernic.com) and can sit with a little searchbox in a little spot in your windows toolbar. It is a million times better than the crummy search function built into Outlook. It’s also very fast.

Outlook Fu number 1 - install no add-ins. Use it as is. Use the Outlook Calendar for appointments, Tasks for GTD (folder per context, plus a projects folder — just like the paper system), Contacts for addresses.

Don’t get fancy — Outlook is aesthetically lacking, but add-ins never give back as much as they take. I’ve tried a bunch, and have even written a couple.

I use Outlook and many of my friends use it also because it is what their workplace makes them use.

When I’m inviting friends to a social event, instead of sending a normal email with the details, I create an appointment in the Calendar and use “Invite Attendees”.

The main benefit of inviting people this way is the dramatic increase in the response rate. Outlook’s default settings generally forces recipients to click “accept”, “refuse” or “tentative” when they get a new appointment. They can’t just read it and forget about RSVPing.

A secondary benefit is that the event gets put in their Outlook Calendar and they get a reminder about the event.

I really like the way I can drag and drop in outlook. When I get an email that I need to put in my calendar, task manager or note I just drag and drop it onto the icon and it becomes an event, with an alarm that notifies me of what I need to get done and when. I never forget anything anymore

The one plugin I use regularly in Outlook (and which is a huge timesaver) is SpeedFiler from Calritude Software (http://www.claritude.com/product.htm).

It saves lots of time when processing and filing mail, is very easy to use and unobtrusive. I wouldn’t live without it.

Another plugin I use (unfortunately only available in German so far) is SmartTools Mail-Assistent (http://www.add-in-world.com/katalog/ol-mailass/). It will warn the user if he uses (any user-defined) word for attachment but no attachment is visible. Secondly, it will warn about empty subject lines as well. Really great stuff.

Thirdly, I used to use SpamSieve (http://spamsieve.sf.net) as Spam plugin. It’s free, does a really great job and is basically easily installed and configured, too. Very valuable.

jr

At work, I use Outlook for calendar, email, and in a limited way for Notes. The only time I use tasks anymore is for reminders. The drag and drop is great, but the functionality is just too limited. Since buying add-ins is neither feasible nor desirable, I recently moved all my tasks over to ToDoList. Not quite kGTD (but then what is?), but it works pretty well and TDL has some great features.

As far as GTD on Outlook, it’s hard to beat Adrian Trenholm’s filter system. It’s clean and it has kept my inbox at zero. It can be found here http://www.trenholm.co.uk/?p=59

Hey Merlin. Kudos on your success with 43 Folders. Consider this a shout-out from Tallahassee. I would highly recommend the SpamBayes plugin for Outlook. It’s the original free open-source python-based bayesean spam filter that most other Baysean filters have evolved from in one way or another. It was based on the work of Paul Graham who was one of the first people to apply Baysean techniques to catching spam. If properly trained on good and bad email you can easily tame your inbox. Personally, it cleans out over 400 spam messages per day from my inbox and I don’t think I’ve ever had a false positive. The nice thing about this filter that I have not seen in other spam filters is the “unsure” folder where email that can’t be classified as either spam or non-spam ends up. This way you only have to look through a handful of spam messages each day to ensure you aren’t getting any false positives. Spambully is another highly rated commercial filter that does this, and (surprise) it is based on the original SpamBayes filter. I’ve never heard of Adrian Trenholm’s filter so I can’t comment on that one.

Also, I would have to say Google Desktop has become one of my favorite general use tools. I use it to find Outlook messages and anything else I lose on my PC. I use the integrated scratch pad and todo list widgets constantly and there’s plenty of other (mostly useless) widgets available for those with extra desktop space to burn. If I ever switch to Gmail, I’ll probably use their calendar widget too.

I’m a dire-hard mac fan, but I use Outlook 2000 at work for e-mail. My dirty secret is I’m way better at organizing my e-mail at work. I’m at inbox zero every day, thanks to the keyboard shortcut to move messages into folders.

I changed the settings to turn off the preview pane on the inbox, so I just see the message list. This helps me not “scan” my messages without really dealing with them.

1. Open one message in its own windows

2. Deal with it: delete, forward, reply, and or file for later

if file for later:

1. hit Control-shift-V to pop up a window with my folder list

2. start typing the name of the folder I want (@ actions, projects, etc) and hit enter to move the message

3. repeat

I’m also a Lookout user - and of course figured it would be mentioned by other commenters.

However, what hasn’t been mentioned yet, is Lookout is so powerful that I’m able to do away with folder storage in Outlook. Besides the built in folders (inbox, sent, etc) I have one Archive folder. Anything that needs to be saved goes in there. By using the right search terms in Lookout, I can find any email I need within about 10 seconds.

Another “trick” I use in Outlook (I believe David Allen suggested this) is to open multiple windows of Outlook. Makes it easy to drag emails directly to the task list, etc. Of course, it helps to have a multiple monitor setup for that, which I’m lucky to have!

Just chiming in more plugs for the Lookout and SpamBayes plugins for Outlook. They both make me smile.

All those who are using Lookout: I used to be devoted to Lookout, but had lots of problems with the Index not updating correctly. Lookout would add new messages, no problem! But when an email was deleted or moved, often times Lookout wouldn’t know - and that would lead to bad search results.

Windows Desktop Search, and Windows Live Toolbar work much better at searching Outlook these days. Using Outlook 2003’s built in search folders also eliminates the need for manually organizing your folders.

I like Thunderbird’s Search Folders feature. You define a search criteria for any folder, then you can save it as a search folder. This is a virtual folder that always displays emails from anywhere that amtch the search criteria - very nice.

I’m sure that the Mac has had this feature for years but it’s probably a new experience for PC users!

Check out what Scott Hanselman has to say: 3rd party add-ins for Outlook that can be used to greatly enhance your productivity http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HanselminutesPodcast30OutlookAddInsAndPersonalProductivityEnhancers.aspx

If you look for another great plugin, try this one: http://www.imaillight.com Its free and does a superb job in filtering automatically all incoming e-mails according to your outlook folders.

For email triage I use SNARF, clearcontext’s free email prioritization tools, and activewords for customizable email boilerplate. This is of course in addition to the good ol’ GTD workflow.

I have been using copernic for email search, and use it more than google desktop.

I’ve installed and uninstalled tons of Outlook add-ins. None work so well as ClearContext for automatically sorting, filing, and retrieving related e-mails. It makes for a very good GTD system, since it generates tasks and appointments from e-mails. I find it better than the official GTD add-in, by a wide margin.

I use Outlook, and as soon as it is installing, I immediately download ClearContext (http://www.clearcontext.com) - it’s the only add-in I use now…

After ten years of Outlook use, here are the four things that have made the biggest difference for me.

1. Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Most actions in Outlook are MUCH faster by using the keyboard rather than floating back and forth to the mouse.

2. Use the autoarchive function. I set up a new outlook data file each year for archived emails. I have individual folders set up with specific rules on how long to keep stuff around before it gets archived. This enables me to keep the material long-term and to keep my main outlook data file down to a reasonable size. When that file gets too big, it slows the whole system down.

3. GTD add-in. For about a year and half now, I have been using the GTD add-in. It is the tool that has made it possible for me to implement the GTD methodology successfully.

4. X1 Search. I use the x1 tool (http://www.x1.com) as my desktop and email search tool. It allows me to catalog all of the aforementioned archive files and find what I need in an instant.

If you use Outlook on a Tablet PC, then you’ve got to have TEO 3.0. It replaces the standard Outlook forms with ink-enabled versions that make Outlook feel a lot like a trusty paper-based planner. It also adds note-taking functions and other goodies like integration with Skype and MapPoint. You can check it out over at http;//www.tabletoutlook.com.

Also, while it’s not an add-in, I’d like to recommend Michael Linenberger’s excellent “Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook.” He offers several suggestions for making Outlook work better for GTD by changing a few settings that are buried where most users might never find them. You can check it out at http://tinyurl.com/mzfg4 .

I work for a large corp, so software add-ons are a big no-no at work.

Here is how I use Outlook:

Inbox: I try to only keep emails in my Inbox that require action and I flag them so they don’t get lost in the sea of new emails coming in. Otherwise emails get filed in personal folders. Once the task is done, I just file it in the appropriate personal folder.

Personal Folders: I have Outlook set up so I can see labeled personal folders that are currently requiring my attention. I usually have folders for the departments I interact with and any major initiatives that I am involved with. That way I can just dump emails from my Inbox into my personal folders. When I don’t need the folder anymore, I just archive it.

Calendar: There are tasks that I am required to do on a monthly/weekly basis. I create a reoccuring reminder to pop-up a few days before the task is due.