10 Popular Add-Ins for Outlook

Duplicate Email Remover

Duplicate Email Remover does precisely as the title says: It finds and removes duplicate emails. With its powerful search tool, it can look through any email or folder within Outlook. Using the many fields for searching, such as the subject, sender, recipients, and even the internet headers, finding all those extra emails is a snap.

Once this Outlook add-in locates duplicates, the program marks these email messages for easy review. You can also set it to move those messages directly to the Deleted Items folder or any folder of your choosing. The trial version is limited, but the full license's flexibility in options makes Duplicate Email Remover a useful tool.

Bells and Whistles for Outlook

Bells and Whistles for Outlook is an extensive collection of tweaks, add-ins, and productivity settings to make your email tasks more efficient. With features such as added templates to email metrics reports, Bells and Whistles offers a large variety of functional items. There's even a handy Outlook Add-in Utility to find which add-ins you loaded, and to enable or disable add-ins.

Many of the features make Outlook customization less daunting. With Bells and Whistles, you can automatically add greetings, signatures, disclaimer sections, or boilerplate texts. You can also set up notification alerts that tell you when you add attachments or use too many uppercase letters.

A bonus feature that's perfect for small to home offices is the email metrics. Here, you can see trends in email traffic, the recipients you receive email from the most, and the people you email frequently.

ClearContext

ClearContext is like having a personal assistant for your electronic communications. This add-in plugs in to Outlook seamlessly and automatically transforms your inbox into a cleaner, leaner, organized, and better place. You can assign emails as to-dos, create projects to organize your tasks, and streamline email filing with a simple click.

Its two main features include AutoFile and File Sent Messages. AutoFile declutters your inbox by setting automated emails (think shopping and social networking) aside for later review in the Daily Digest. File Sent Messages automatically files received messages together for better organization.

The Emails to Tasks and Appointments functions turn any email into a task or appointment quickly. If you need some peace and quiet, you can use the Defer tool to snooze your inbox messages to keep the distractions down.

SimplyFile

SimplyFile is a powerful yet simple email organizing tool for Outlook. With a few simple steps, you can set up one-click email filtering. The system learns from your inbox and predicts the correct destination for incoming messages. Its feature-rich interface includes creating tasks, bulk folder creation, and email sending delays.

Other handy features include one-click searching and detailed email usage reports, snoozing messages for a specified time, and an undo send feature. SimplyFile is great for individuals and enterprise-level solutions and comes in three subscription tiers to best cater to your needs.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a useful writing and editing add-in for Outlook and Microsoft Word. Compose emails with the reassurance that you'll have proper grammar and clarity with a few adjustments.

Grammarly has several types of text checks, including overall correctness of grammar, clarity of message, and help with setting the tone. Grammarly also has a plagiarism check to make sure your email text is original.

Whether you want to see Grammarly suggestions all the time or just want to check your emails when you're ready to send, Grammarly allows you to use it the way you want. Configuring Grammarly takes a few minutes and is easily adjustable to any type of communication. Though it's free to use, some of the most useful features require a full subscription.

ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a grammar and writing add-in for Outlook and Microsoft Word, among other apps. It's a basic grammar checker, and it improves your email writing. With over 25 writing reports and checks, you can create emails with finesse and clarity.

The checks include grammar, overused words, sentence structure, sticky sentences, and overuse of cliches. ProWritingAid also includes checks for plagiarism, a built-in thesaurus, and real-time checking.

While these features may be overkill for most email uses, for those that want to sound professional and polished, you can't go wrong with this powerful tool.

Zoom Plugin for Outlook

Zoom video conferencing software is a common application that many remote workers use for meetings, seminars, or presentations. With the Zoom Plugin for Outlook, setting up a Zoom meeting is a couple of clicks away.

The add-in gives you two basic options: Schedule a Meeting or Start Instant Meeting. The scheduling tool opens a blank email with the Room Finder so that you can easily see what dates are available for a meeting.

Other aspects of the scheduled meeting can be set up like any other appointment in Outlook. The Zoom Plugin for Outlook automatically pastes the rest of the meeting information.

Lookeen

Lookeen is a powerful search tool not only for your Outlook emails but your entire hard drive. This Outlook add-in allows you to customize searches for any field with any string of text, including dates and times.

You can either use the inline search field or, for more advanced searches, open up the advanced dialog. Lookeen can search network drives. While not free to use, you do get the license for a lifetime when purchased.