The 8 Best Outlook Add-Ins to Achieve Inbox Zero
TIP: Send Outlook Automatic Reply like a PRO for Out of the office!
- No more typos with Grammarly
- Automatically add contacts in Cc or Bcc when criterias are met: Auto BCC/CC Add-In
- Schedule emails later in one click Boomerang
- Use PayPal directly in Outlook with the PayPal Plugin
- Manage your tasks within the Team by using Trello Add-In
- Back-and-forth for getting the right meeting time? FindTime solves it!
- Set-up a Zoom meeting directly in MS Outlook with the Zoom Plugin
- Use funny GIFs without going to an external Page, use Giphy
How to install, enable and manage Outlook Addins
- Install Outlook Add-Ins
- Enable the Add-In (usually it will be enabled automatically)
- Troubleshoot Add-in if it gets automatically disabled
- Disable the Add-In (same process like enabling it)
Write your own VBA code to save the money of a simple Addin.
The best Outlook Add-Ins in detail
Grammarly
Be more professional at work by writing emails without typos, clearly and formally! After testing it for a long-time it is better than the standard correction of Outlook. My favorite feature is “Clarity” since it will highlight sentences which may make sense to you but not somebody else.
Here you can see an example of Grammerly Add-In in Outlook:
If you use Outlook for Business then I recommend highly to adjust the goals to “Expert” and “Formal”: 
The free version of Grammarly is great, so download and install it now.
Boomerang
How many times do you send an email and you receive no response? The Boomerang Outlook Add-In will bring you automatically a notification after 2 days if you get no reply, so you can follow up.
Another cool feature is to send email contacts your availability for a meeting, so you don’t need to check it on your own. On top, they can directly book a meeting with you: 
You can connect multiple calendars and configure additional settings:
- Send guests an email reminder before a scheduled meeting
- Request additional information from guests when they book a meeting. By default, guests provide their name and email address.
- Buffer time between meetings
- Minimum booking notice
- Maximum booking frequency
The email contacts can book the meeting also in a browser view:
The Meeting scheduler of Boomerang makes most sense for meetings with 2-3 participants. Otherwise I recommend FindTime addin (read below).
FindTime
This Plugin solves one use case: Find the right time for a meeting between several participants. It will send a Poll and each participant can vote for specific times or add a new time. At each moment everybody can view in the browser the current state of the poll. You as the organizer will get the result as soon as the poll is finished. In this way you send only one Email to all participans to know the right time, without long back-and-forths.
Auto BCC/CC Add-In
It happens everyday in a Team then you send emails and very often you set the same contacts on Cc, may your manager, your boss or some team members. You can save time by using the described plugin to automatically add contacts in Cc or Bcc when specific criterias are met. It is highly configurable, some examples:
- Add my manager on Cc on every email
- Add my team member on Cc when the subject contains “internal”
- Add the internal support on Cc when the subject contains “Problem”
- Add my team members of Project “Limitless” on Cc when “To” email contains any customer name
When the configuration is set then you can get a notification like this:
The plugin comes in a Plugin-Collection and it’s free to use for 30 days. See pricing.
Giphy
Do you have fun at work and share GIFs with your teammates frequently GIFs?
The Giphy Add-In helps you to be faster because you don’t need to leave Outlook, search on the web for Gifs, export them and import them to your Email…
With this solution you can add in 2x clicks a GIF from the most famous platform, Giphy.
PayPal Plugin
Use PayPal directly in Outlook to make transactions:
Trello Add-In
Manage your team tasks directly in outlook without the need to leave it:
Zoom Plugin
Set-up a Zoom meeting directly in MS Outlook:
Troubleshoot Add-in if it gets automatically disabled
Solution 1: Add the folder path of the Plugin to the trusted paths
Add the Outlook Addin folder to the trusted paths:
- Open Outlook -> Options–>Trust Center–>Trust Center Settings
- Under the Trusted Locations, just add the folder path where the addin is located.
Solution 2: Change registry keys
- Start > type ‘regedit’
- Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins AND HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins
- Then change the value of loadBehaviour to 3 for YOUR PLUGIN
- Close the registry and reopen it to make sure that value has not changed.
- Now restart Outlook.
Solution 3: Disabled application add ins
Do you need help with Outlook?
I am a software engineer with over 8 years of professional development experience in desktop applications. So, you are in the right place to ask questions:
- I have consulted and implemented solutions for hundreds of clients to increase productivity by automating workflows.
- I create VSTO Addins/Macros for Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word to automate your monotone work process and save you time.
- Example 1: Excel, prevent PDF publishing if certain criteria in the Excel file are not filled.
- Example 2. Outlook, force users to classify the email before sending them.
- Example 3: Excel, match source files like PDFs with excel rows and sync data.
- For any question, contact me now, and I always find a solution!
About the author
Patrick Gruber is homeless because
he made his dream of being a digital nomad real.
He started as a developer, ventured into Amazon FBA business, invested in the market, founded a Cardano Stake Pool, and started his blog in 2022.
His blog shares his insight into the LIMITLESS possibilities of life.
If you're looking to change your world and gain practical knowledge, you're in the right place. Keep reading to learn more.
