Improve your outlook

If you want to improve your overall outlook on life, you may want to dissect a Magic 8-Ball. For the rest of us who just want to get through the day with the email-and-kitchen-sink app known as Microsoft Outlook, here’s a couple free add-ons you might be interested in.

# Lookout is a search engine that can search all your Outlook folders at once and display results in a matter of seconds. It was recently bought by Microsoft but still sports its open source license. So maybe you should download it ASAP before it’s all gone.
# DateLens is a spiffed up Calendar written by the University of Maryland and Microsoft Research. It allows you to zoom in and out of appointments, allowing you to rapidly switch from a birds-eye view of your month to a microscopic perusal of your day. It’s hard to describe; take a look at their demonstration video.

Both apps require at least Outlook 2000 and .Net Framwork 1.1. But they’re worth it.