Although Internet speeds are getting quicker and email providers are offering more mailbox storage space, it's still no excuse for bombarding people with huge attachments. Yes, I know it's much easier to just dump the original file you want to send into the message, but programs like WinZip Companion mean you don't have to do this. The application allows you to zip and unzip files within Outlook with the greatest of ease.

WinZip Companion delivers several useful tools for helping you achieve smaller file sizes. The plug-in, which works exactly like the popular WinZip utility, provides a handy interface for compressing files directly before they are sent. It can bundle several different files into a single attachment, making things a lot easier for both you and the recepient of the email.

It's also very secure, because the software boasts built-in 256-Bit encryption. This means you can apply passwords to attachments so that they can only be opened by those who are authorised to do so. You can also opt to exclude certain file formats from compression if you so desire.

If you're an Outlook user and you send and receive attachments regularly then you can't afford to be without this program, as it will dramatically speed up transfer times and save precious space in your mailbox

Download WinZip Companion 2.0 in Softonic

Lookout is lightning-fast search for your email, files, and desktop works with Microsoft Outlook®.

Lookout was acquired by Microsoft in June, 2004. Since that time, we have been hard at work building the MSN Toolbar Suite, which is a new search product from MSN. At this point Lookout is still available to use, but future developments from MSN will be in the MSN Toolbar Suite product. Existing Lookout users are welcome to continue to use Lookout as long as they wish, or upgrade to the new MSN product.

Download Lookout 1.3.0 Beta in Softonic

Grab the calendar of the first stage of the 2006 World Cup. All you need to do is import this file into your Outlook and it will show the schedule and the venue for each and every one of the first stage games. That way, you'll be able to keep in touch with the timetable for the games.

Download World Cup 2006 Outlook Calendar 1.0 in Softonic

Don't miss a second of the World Cup action. This tool imports itself directly into your Outlook calendar and shows the schedule of every world cup match, from the first round to the schedule. It also informs of what English tv channel each game will be broadcast and the venue for each game. If you double click on an entry you can view extra information for each squad from the MSN website. Finally you can schedule alarm notifications for your favorite games.

Download World Cup 2006 fixture list 1.0 in Softonic

If you like Google Calendar but the only supported calendar at work is the Microsoft Outlook one, this tool is going to make your life much easier.

Google Calendar Sync is a software app developed by the Google team with which you can sync events between your Google Calendar and the Microsoft Outlook calendar. Synchronization works in several ways: either one-way from Google to Outlook, one-way from Outlook to Google or two-way between both apps.

When installing Google Calendar Sync you'll need to close Microsoft Outlook and also provide your username and password for your Google account. Once you've done that you're pretty much ready to go. Google Calendar Sync shows an icon on the system tray (which is really not that informative) and can be set to synchronize events according to a customized period of time. Also, events are fully editable inside Google Calendar's web interface.

On the downside, all the events I had in shared calendars were not successfully synced so I guess it only works with your own personal calendars.

Despite not working with shared calendars, Google Calendar Sync is still a very handy tool to keep both Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar fully synced.

Download Google Calendar Sync 0.9.3.0 in Softonic

If you're a keen photographer, and you are using Microsoft Outlook calendar (the 2003 or 2007 version) you can schedule photo shoots with this simple plugin.

Fully integrated with Microsoft Mail, this plugin allows you to create lists of photographic material and tools that you'll need for an upcoming photoshoot whether it be a wedding, birthday, fashion sheet or even if you're thinking of being a paparazzi. The basic advantage of this plugin is that enables you to stay more organised especially if you're a photographer with a lot of bookings per day. The amount of material, props and equipment you need from shoot to shoot often varies wildly and forgotten tools can cost you valuable bookings. With Photo Shoot Pro you can prepare in advance the material you need for each photo. This way you can The plugin even has a special options for reminding you of the type of camera and settings it should be prepared at so that be sure that you do not forget anything and wearing the proper equipment.

For photographers this is an excellent plugin although amateur photographers will find little use for it.

Download Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot in Softonic

This little program bridges the gap between the Outlook calendar tool and the possibility to have it visible nearly all the time. As its own name suggests, Outlook on Desktop places the Microsoft Outlook Calendaring system right on your desktop.

The calendar object gets pinned to your desktop and stays there all the time in plain sight so you can always see what's upcoming. Of course, the benefits don't stop there ... because it's the actual Microsoft Outlook calendar, you get all it's functionality, such as direct editing, drag and drop of files, etc.

Take a look at what Outlook on Desktop has to offer:

• Places fully functional Microsoft Outlook Calendar on your Desktop
• The Oulook Calendar is pinned to your desktop so that no windows can get stuck behind it
• The Calendar's position, size and opacity are all adjustable via a very intuitive GUI
• A tray Icon (complete with the day of the month) is provided to to configure the app and perform other actions
• Multiple-Monitor Support
• Ability to switch between calendar, inbox, contacts, tasks and notes views

Download Outlook on Desktop 1.3.3 in Softonic

Agendus for Windows, Outlook Edition v.3 adds pizazz to your Microsoft Outlook experience. If you have ever been frustrated with the limited, quirky ways Outlook shows your monthly and weekly schedule, or wished that Outlook could make it easier to find contacts, or quickly find all your past meetings with a particular person, then you will love Agendus for Outlook. Agendus provides scores of ways to view your calendar, contacts, notes, & tasks, and provides powerful linking and search functions to make it a snap to find the information you need to track!

Agendus for Outlook is for you if:

• You live by your Outlook information, but you wish it worked the way you do
• You want to customize your calendar view with options not available in Outlook
• You wish Outlook had real contact-management features to allow you to associate Task items, Notes, Meetings, and Calls to Contacts, creating a powerful contact-history
• You wish Outlook let you set icons, category colors, pictures and more to make reviewing and managing your information easier
• You love the idea of a solution 100% Microsoft Outlook compatible
• You would use more of Outlook's power if it was easier and more fun to use

Agendus for Outlook is a turbo-charged Microsoft Outlook Add-in that integrates directly with Microsoft Outlook, and efficiently adds easy access to hundreds of powerful, custom features for organizing your schedule, contacts and life! Freely customize your calendar interface with color themes and icons, filter and sort your contacts, and even edit and create icons for linking to calendar events, meetings, calls, notes, or tasks. With Agendus for Outlook, you'll enjoy an intuitive, familiar user-interface design based on Microsoft Outlook, with quick-access to the Agendus toolbar for one-click actions that run circles around the mundane ordinary Outlook experience. Agendus is so easy to use, you'll be up to speed in minutes, using our straightforward shortcuts to turbo-charge Microsoft Outlook information input.

Download Agendus for Windows Outlook Edition 3.32 in Softonic

This innovative utility allows you to integrate Skype with Outlook, meaning that you can quickly call, text or email any of your Outlook contacts from within Skype. Skylook boasts a number of impressive tools designed to help take your communication to the next level.

Features include:

Use Skylook 1.0 to record Skype VoIP Calls to MP3

Record your Skype VoIP Calls (both inbound and outbound) directly into Outlook items as MP3 attachments. Skylook 1.0 will archive all you Skype calls neatly in Outlook, saving you a lot of time and hassle.

Archive your Skype IM Chats into Outlook

With Skylook 1.0 you can automatically record your Skype IM Chats straight into Outlook as mailbox items. This means that you can access any of the conversations you've had at any time directly through your email client.

Manage your Skype VoIP calls and Skype IM chats

Skylook 1.0 organizes all of your Skype calls, Skype text chats together with email and appointments effectively. Again, this can prove to be a real time saver, giving you more time to chat and less time trying to get organized.

Download Skylook 1.5 in Softonic

Backups are one of the most essential parts of every computer user’s priorities - especially where important e-mails are concerned. Easy Email Backup can take complete or customized backups of MS Outlook messages, address books and settings. It can also extract important files from My Documents, Registry, settings from Internet Explorer and other important personal files in one go. Data duplication, compression with passwords and even schedules for automatic backups at fixed dates and times can be created.

The interface is user friendly and most backup steps are clearly displayed as icons at the top. One nice feature is that you can apply high level encryption to backed-up files so they're safe from prying eyes. Another bonus is that there's no limit to the backup size - even huge archives can be done although it does tend to grind away for an awful long time on anything over 1GB. Still, the fact that it can backup other files as well as Outlook, make this a very useful all-in-one backup utility.

Download Easy Email Backup 2.0.287 Beta in Softonic

So many people's lives are organised around Outlook that anything that enhances it's use is welcome. ABC Amber Outlook Converter is intended to help you keep your important emails, newsletters, other important messages conveniently organized in one file and it does a really good job in doing so.

The best thing about this program is that if you want to convert an Outlook e-mail to another format or clean-out your inbox, you can easily. It converts your emails from Outlook to several document formats including major ones such as PDF, HTML, RTF and DOC. The program generates the contents with bookmarks (in RTF and HTML) and also keeps the hyperlinks. The conversion process is a simple process of selecting the required messages, choosing the document format to convert to and clicking the "Save As" button.

If you constantly find yourself struggling with Outlook accounts that are overloaded or too big, this is a very useful program. You can export hundreds of messages with attachments in minutes. In particular, the export to PDF option is excellent - it creates a single PDF file which clearly displays each message subject title and a link to the full document including attachments.

There a few negatives in ABC Amber Outlook Convertor apart from the fact that to receive updates, you have to register but that's a small price to pay for an excellent Outlook tool that should be welcomed by overloaded office workers everywhere.

Download ABC Amber Outlook Converter 9.10 in Softonic

DeskTask connects to Microsoft Outlook and displays your calendar and task items on the desktop. Your tasks will always be visible, saving. Just minimize every window, and see what are the items due for today or tomorrow. DeskTask displays the whole week so you can be prepared to organize your work. Besides the calendar items, the Outlook to-do list (Folder Tasks) is also displayed.

Download DeskTask 1.0 RC9 in Softonic

OE Tweaker is a freeware utility designed to give you control over some hidden Outlook Express options and provide an easy way to access the Blocked Senders list. Some useful Outlook Express settings are not exposed in its Options dialog and the only way to change them is to tinker with registry. That is if you don't have OE Tweaker. Once you get this handy utility customizing the hidden Outlook Express settings becomes a snap. Another useful feature of OE Tweaker is a Blocked Senders list editor. Filtering and columns sorting make it so much easier to find and remove an email address of an accidentally blacklisted friend when the list has few hundred entries.

Download Outlook Express Tweaker 1.01 in Softonic

There's nothing more confusing or annoying than having duplicate e-mails or contacts in your inbox. Outlook Express Duplicate Killer is a powerful "search and destroy" application which uses algorithms to locate duplicates in seconds. You can choose between an easy one-click duplicate removing-merging process or a sophisticated wizard. If you perform the task regularly, you can even save your search settings and then access it from the Outlook Express Toolbar.

Obviously, this program only works on Outlook Express which is shame because a tool like this for Outlook would be a real bonus for many office workers. The trial version is fully functional although it will only search and find duplicates, and remove 10 files at a time. It's also limited to 14 days of use.

If you're plagued by contact and duplicate mail confusion in Outlook Express then look no further.

Download Outlook Express Duplicate Killer 1.01.0153 in Softonic

Mailinfo makes your email more dependable by letting you know that the email you send is received. Receive real time alerts directly to your desktop even while you are surfing the web or using any other application. Receive a daily reminder to follow up on emails you sent which haven't been confirmed by Mailinfo or emails that appear to be lost. We believe that to fight lost emails senders and receivers have to help one another. That is why we make it a policy that receivers should know when they receive an email from a sender who is using mailinfo. Read more about the Mailinfo philosophy. Mailinfo is seamlessly integrated into your Microsoft Outlook® so you can simply continue sending emails as usual. The content of your emails remains between you and the recipients. We don't redirect your emails, they don't go through our servers, and we do not have access to them.

Download Mailinfo 2.4 in Softonic

Quick Templates is an Outlook add-in designed for fast insertion of text templates into Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2002 (XP), 2000 mail messages. This Outlook add-in will help you with entering frequently repeated text fragments, save the time you spend on message writing, and so help with decreasing the number of misprints in your messages. Quick Templates is a very useful Outlook tool for technical support officers, sales personnel and anyone who makes an extensive use of e-mail in their work.

Quick Templates for OutlookYou will have to write and format your text only once and then you can insert it in mail messages of any type (HTML, RTF, plain text) repeatedly. This Outlook add-in keeps all the text parameters and formatting unchanged, which allows you to create lots of various headings, signatures, phrases, or any other text blocks, lines, or words you use frequently in your correspondence.

With Quick Templates you can quickly create a template list and insert the text from template into a message with a single mouse click or alternatively through a hotkey you can set for each template individually.

Download Quick Templates 1.3.1 in Softonic

E-mail slowing you down? Try Mail Alert. Mail Alert was designed with your productivity in mind. That's why we've made it easier for you to simply get your work done without the hassle of switching to your e-mail client every time you receive new mail.

When new e-mail arrives, Mail Alert will display a non-intrusive desktop alert containing essential information from the e-mail received. Now you can avoid the constant shuffle between work and e-mail, thus boosting your productivity.

Want to reply to the incoming e-mail? No need to stop working and switch to your e-mail application; Mail Alert provides the most common actions directly from the desktop alert, such as reply, mark as read and delete.

With Mail Alert, you control how desktop alerts are displayed. You can choose how many alerts are shown at once, and how long before each alert is dismissed. You also have the option of selecting desktop alerts for all incoming e-mail or only for those delivered to folders you specify, unlike in Outlook 2003 which only allows desktop alerts for your Inbox. Mail Alert also works in conjunction with Outlook rules, giving you, the user, maximum flexibility.

Download Mail Alert 1.1 in Softonic

Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook have support for stationery, which means you can add a colourful background to your email messages and make them funnier and more personal.

This Halloween pack includes a collection of 12 stationery items that you can use in Outlook to give your emails a horrifying touch. They all display Halloween motifs such as pumpkins, witches and disguised children with treat bags. Font type is selected by default, but you can replace it with your favourite one. I couldn't change the bold setting though.

One last tip: remember to use a light text color when using a dark background – that is, if you really want to be read.

Use Haunted Halloween Stationery to send the most original Halloween emails from Outlook!

Download Haunted Halloween Stationery 3.2.2 in Softonic

Microsoft Outlook Mobile Manager (OMM) brings the power of Microsoft Outlook to your portable device. OMM can prioritize your messages and makes smart decisions about when to send email. OMM also sends calendar reminders, task reminders, and an Outlook Today style daily summary all to your wireless device.

Mobile users can be overwhelmed by incoming messages on their device. Employing technology developed at Microsoft Research, OMM learns about the urgency of your email messages, and prioritizes them for relay to a mobile device. Intelligent decisions are be made about if and when to notify you. Based on your preference settings, the system can decide that a message can wait until you get back to your desk. This way, only time-critical messages are sent to your mobile device.

OMM has the ability to learn from you to continue to enhance its behavior. It considers feedback and adapts over time and can continue to enhance the quality of its decisions. The system also forecasts the time until you will read a message from your inbox and uses this prediction to determine when it is best to withhold mobile messaging--and to instead simply wait for you read the message in a non-mobile setting.

OMM knows how you work and when you work, and only notifies you when it is needed. Based on hours of the day, days of the week, and by detecting your presence at your desk--or in your inbox from other sites, you can control the amount of notifications you receive.

By integrating with the Outlook calendar, OMM will send you a summary of the days events! You can choose to send each days summary before you start your day, or send tomorrow’s schedule on the night before.

OMM keeps you connected with critical information about your day--and your life. No need to worry about keeping everything straight while you are on the road. If you are not at your desktop to see a reminder from Outlook about a task or upcoming meeting, you can receive the reminder on your mobile device. OMM keeps you in touch!

OMM employs IntelliShrink™, a flexible message formatting technology that can custom-tailor information to devices with limited screen sizes and resolution. It uses natural language processing from Microsoft Research to understand the information in a message and compress it so that you get all of the information you need on any device.

Download Microsoft Outlook Mobile Manager 2.0 in Softonic

NEO Free Instantly Organizes Outlook Email. Based on the award-winning NEO add-in, NEO Free turns Outlook into a powerful email organizer giving you the instant searching and effortless browsing capabilities that Outlook forgot. NEO Free breaks down Outlook’s frustrating folder boundaries: see your messages auto-organized into virtual folders by Correspondent, and your e-zines & lists separated in Bulk Mail. Completely safe - use Outlook just as before.

Download Nelson Email Organizer Free 3.1 in Softonic