Improve your Outlook experience with Xobni

Here’s a way to extend the functionality of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, and improve email communication too.
There is no doubt that Microsoft has put in a great deal of effort and investment to develop Outlook Express and Outlook email clients. Why, Outlook offers much more than email: It is also a PIM (Personal Information Manager) and it can be used collaboratively to plan meetings. But when it comes to email, there are some limitations. As the number of messages in a mailbox increases, it becomes extremely difficult to locate specific messages. Yes, Outlook offers ways to sort this out with various ‘Views’ and advanced search features. Yet these are not quite user-friendly or accurate as one would expect. Moreover, these features are buried deep under a heap of menus, which at times can be rather frustrating. So, what does one do? Abandon Outlook and use Thunderbird or some other mail client? Well, we discovered an efficent add-on tool for Outlook called Xobni (Inbox spelt backwards).

Even Bill Gates acknowledges Xobni. “This is really a kind of social networking set of capabilities but brought into Outlook itself. And so we think it’s very, very cool,” said Gates.
Well, let’s get to the point; so what does Xobni really do? Xobni indexes all mail (in all folders) downloaded into Outlook. It also indexes notes, calendars, tasks, and address books. It then searches deep within Outlook and presents the user with historical information that can be used for follow-ups, or to track workflow and schedules. This tool analyzes communication patterns and creates a profile for every person that the user communicates with. The highlight of this tool is that it is quick in locating every message that relates to a keyword or person.

Xobni appears as a task pane on the far right of the screen, and when it loads it displays a search box and lots of useful information.

The Xobni sidebar is collapsible and it can be turned off (if you think it slows down Outlook). But it auto loads with Outlook and begins indexing messages in the background. We encourage you to use Xobni analytics and study the information and statistics that Xobni offers for each user profile (profiles are created for every user with whom you communicate).

Step 1: Download and install

Download the setup file from www.xobni.com. The installer file is 3.5 MB in size. In addition to the setup file, you will also need the Microsoft .Net framework. During installation Xobni checks if this is installed on your computer. If not, then Xobni proceeds to fetch and install it for you. It also offers to optionally link the Xobni sidebar with Linked.com profiles. If you choose to do so, existing Linked profiles of address book contacts are shown on the Xobni sidebar (this can be turned off later). We advise you to skip this, as it does not really contribute too much to productivity.

Step 2: Indexing mail

After the installation, Xobni will take some time to create an index. We suggest you interrupt this process by shutting down Outlook (and Xobni). Restart Outlook, display the Xobni sidebar and then manually start the indexing. Follow these steps.

• Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] to load the Windows Task Manager.

• Click on the ‘Process’ tab.

• Search the process named ‘OUTLOOK.EXE’ and shut it down.

• Reload Outlook and click ‘Xobni | View Xobni Sidebar’.

• Click ‘Xobni | Index All Mail’.

Step 3: Xobni Setup

You can improve Xobni performance (and Outlook response) by tweaking some options in the setup.

• From the Outlook menu select ‘Xobni | Options’.

• Go through the self-explained options within the ‘General’, ‘Integration’ and ‘Schedule Time’ tabs.

• Click the ‘Indexing’ tab. It shows collapsed Outlook folders.

• Click the ‘+’ sign against a folder name to expand it.

• Choose what subfolders are to be indexed by checking or unchecking the boxes alongside.

To speed up indexing one may exclude the ‘Archive’  ‘Journal’, ‘Notes’, ‘Tasks’, ‘Drafts’, ‘Junk Mail’, and Deleted Items’ .

Step 4: Xobni Analytics

Xobni provides you with statistics and information that Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express cannot. Here is some of the information that it shows.

• The total number of e-mails received and sent to a particular person at different times of the day.

• Ranks e-mail by sender (number of e-mails received from a particular person against the total in Inbox).

• The maximum number of incoming e-mails that you have received, listed sender-wise.

• The number of conversations you’ve had, and the contents of those conversations.

• The number of files exchanged as attachments and the list of  these attachments Xobni Analytics shows this information in graphical form. To do so, click ‘Xobni | Xobni Analytics’.

Step 5: Xobni Search

Perhaps the best part of Xobni is the speed and accuracy with which it can search for messages sent and received in the past. Messages are searched even as you type the keyword. For instance, type ‘’HP India” in the Search box and in a few seconds it will list all email conversations that contain these keywords.
Simply point at a particular message (in the search results) and it will be displayed in a balloon. Double-click on the message to open it. You can reply or forward within the Xobni window itself, or open that message in the Outlook window. We also found Search useful for tracking conversations related to a particular project. In the search results, click ‘View Conversation’ and Xobni immediately shows a list of all messages that are linked (all the threads in the communication). It also lists the people involved in the conversation and the files exchanged in the conversations (attachments). This is really useful during a project that involves dispersed teams.  Of course, Outlook also has a feature to group messages by conversation, but  Xobni makes the task really easy.