Friday, April 11, 2014

Quick follow up to previous post -- here is what my Outlook toolbar looks like with the addins I mentioned:

Click to enlarge

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Sticking Yellow Notes on My Emails -- New "Notes4Email" from Caelo

I've been trying out a new add-in for Outlook on my PC (Office 2010, 32-bit, Win 7 Pro, 64-bit) for the last ten days or so.  I think it is a keeper, so thought I'd let you know.

"Notes4Email" is new from Caelo; they describe  "adding a Note to your e-mails" as "Outlook's most wanted feature."  (See http://www.emailorganizer.com/support/notes4email.php .)

For me, the important things are that it is easy to write a note, easy to find the note, and that the add-in doesn't interfere with my numerous other ones.  It has passed these criteria with flying colors! (with a yellow color, that is.  :>)

I've been a big seeker of the perfect Personal Information Manager since back in the DOS days.  I still mourn the failure of Lotus to support and develop Agenda.  I became a fan of ECCO Pro, but unfortunately, that too became faded (but not dead, there is still a bunch of devoted fans, and I still have it on my 64-bit Windows 7 PC --- more on that maybe later).  In my previous posts here and in the future, you can see some of the programs I currently use.

But Outlook is nearly unavoidable, having driven so many others out of business or into obscurity.  So, I keep adding things to Outlook, to try to make it do all that I want.  They don't always work well together, and I've had to give up on some because of the crashes, or failures to load, that occur too often.

I get over 100 emails a day, so I really need something to make some standout, where I want to add a quick note; I don't have time to delete, or move to folders, all those emails every day.  I was already using "Single Click Filing," "Track Your Sent," and "eeminders" along with EverNote and OneNote add-ins.

Fortunately, "Notes4Email" is not one of those that crash or fail to load, and hasn't caused any problems since I installed it.  It works, and does just what it promises to do.  (I'll let you read the Caelo page for all those things, rather than repeating them all here.) But here are the highlights, quoted from their website:

"Easy, effective and reliable...
No complicated software, no additional database systems, no additional areas on your screen...
Simply add your comments in a native Outlook Note to your e-mail.
The note will be added as attachment so you will benefit from all features of Outlook attachments:
  • See the first line of your Note directly in the reading pane of the email
  • Simply click the Note attachment icon to see the entire content
  • Forward the e-mail to share your note with others or use Reply to send without the note
  • Use Outlook Search to search within your notes (Outlook also searches within attachments)
  • An additional yellow category ('Notes4Email') makes your noted e-mails clearly visible and even easier to find.
No need to learn Outlook Notes... No need to learn Categories...
Simply focus on the comments you like to add and Notes4Email will do the rest."

http://www.emailorganizer.com/support/notes4email.php

BTW, I also use Neo Pro from Caelo, which is a stand-alone program that integrates with Outlook, for custom organization of emails and particularly fast and robust searching.  "Track Your Sent" and "Single Click Filing" are add-ins also from Caelo.

The "Notes4Email" show in the "Hot" list in Neo Pro, so I can easily see all the emails where I've added notes in one place without searching for them.  Other Outlook Categories all show separately the emails assigned to them in Neo Pro without having to do a search.

See all Caelo products at: http://www.emailorganizer.com/products/index.php#neopro .

They provide free downloads and trials too.