3 tools to quickly search Outlook email
Posted on November 24, 2008 at 5:32 am
I’ve written many times about searching for files in Windows using free software, but I’ve never really touched on how to search Outlook emails quickly. If you’ve ever tried to use the default search in Outlook, you now know how utterly useless it is.
For some reason when you perform a search in Outlook, it returns 100’s of results. I had gotten so sick of the default Outlook search that I replaced a long time back with other software. So if you are looking for Outlook email search programs, here are my favorites.
Note only is it a great way to find files on your computer instantly, it’s also the best Outlook search program. Install it, open Microsoft Outlook, and Google Desktop will automatically index all of your emails.
It also integrates right into Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 so that you can search without having to leave Outlook. Just type in a query and you’ll get a nice looking list of emails that match.
Another desktop program that is an alternative to Google Desktop Search is Windows Desktop Search, which also indexes Outlook email, etc. I personally prefer Google Desktop because it is faster, gives better results, and opens the email directly in Outlook.
Another really cool program for searching your Outlook email is the Xobni Outlook plugin. Not only does it provide instant search of your email, it also has some other cool features like displaying full communication history about past conversations, attachments, and contact details whenever a new email arrives.
It also has email analytics, which is very cool! You will get graphs, rankings and statistics about how you and your contacts use email. Did you ever want to know how many emails you send or receive a day? Who has sent you the most emails in the last month?
Definitely one of the best plugins I’ve ever used for Outlook. If you want to search email plus get some cool stats and features, check out Xobni.
If you love the tagging feature in Gmail, then you’ll love the Taglocity plugin for Outlook. Using this plugin, you can tag all of your emails just like you can in Gmail. You can create tag folders, which only show emails from a particular tag, and you can search for emails by tag.
You can also create rules so that when you tag an email, you can also have it moved to a particular folder, create a new task or appointment, and more. Taglocity has a lot of features and can take a little while to learn, however, it can be a very powerful search and organization tool for heavy Outlook users.
Do you use another program for searching your emails in Outlook? If so, post the program in the comments! Enjoy!
» Filed Under MS Office Tips
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Comments
5 Responses to “3 tools to quickly search Outlook email”
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Multiple find and replace of content using Grep Says:
[...] have posted articles about searching for files and file content using Super Finder and Google Desktop. But what if you have a bunch of files wherein you want to actually replace a content inside [...]
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I’ll have to try one of the above – I have Vista, and the program I was using was awesome but doesn’t work with Office 2007. So, fi these are anything like that, I’m all over it.
The truly quick way: import all your archives from Outlook into Gmail and never worry about this kind of stuff again, while having access to all your email anywhere, anytime.
You forgot the most essential one:
http://www.lookeen.com
Fast and reliable, does search even WITHIN attachments!
mike did you use lookout bevor you had outlook 2007?
i had the problem that lookout didnt work anymore since i installed outlook 2007! i was very upset because i liked this tool very much, but there is a really good follower of lookout! lookeen! it is very similar, and brings the same good results than lookout and runs on vista und outlook 2007!
you should try it if you have the same problem like i had!
http://www.lookeen.com