Clean up your Outlook inbox with Speedfiler

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, E-mail, Office, Commercial

Clean up your Outlook inbox with Speedfiler

by Nitin Badjatia Mar 24th 2006

Like many of you, much of my daily work pattern revolves around Microsoft Outlook. Over the years, I've grown accustomed to Outlook, and have an understanding of its strengths and limitations. One of the biggest limitations has been the ability quickly file inbox messages. Outlook lets you build rules to auto fule stuff, but those rules tend to be pretty rigid. Plus, I'm not a fan of auto filing, at minimum I want to glance at any incoming subject line before I banish it to a sub-folder. Drag and drop is slow, and the built in filing command isn't powerful enough to give you folder options as you search.

The last couple of days I've been testing a new, tiny application called SpeedFiler. SpeedFiler does one thing, and it does it well. The Outlook Add-in gracefully extends Outlook's filing command (Ctrl Shift v) with a smart window that narrows your folder list as you type. This means you don't have to go searching for the appropriate folder by scrolling through a huge list of folders. Nice. Need to get to a folder quickly? Just begin typing the folder name in the SpeedFiler toolbar and optional folder names begin to autopopulate. Cool stuff.

SpeedFiler can also be setup to request a folder to file sent mail, every time you send a message. SpeedFiler has quickly become a part of my routine. If you want to check it out, you can download a trial copy, valid for 30 days. To purchase, SpeedFiler will set you back $19.95

Tags: email, gtd, outlook, productivity, speedfiler

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tim said 1:40PM on 3-24-2006

Yeah, this is a great program. It makes filing email so much faster. My only wish now is for a programmer to make a similar program for Windows Explorer. I'd love to be able to select several zip files or mp3's and easily move them to an appropriate folder. It would also be really cool to be able to get to any folder really quickly like this program.

MIke said 2:11PM on 3-24-2006

Tim,

Try Access Folders from Shelltoys. I think it will what you want.

http://www.shelltoys.com/

Mike

Tim Berger said 1:01AM on 3-25-2006

Access Folders is a decent program, but it's defintely not what I'm looking for. I want a program that indexes all your folders (just folders) and allows you to copy/move files easily and jump to folders quickly. Access Folders is just for going to specific folders that you manual setup. I want to jump to any folder or copy/move a file to any folder, quickly and easily by searching for it like SpeedFiler.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters