Outlook Enhance provides enhancements for Microsoft Outlook, including the ability to edit mailbox column headers (Outlook 2010 only), easy access to message attachments, automatic reading when typing in contacts when in card view, quick access to displayed contact information, with the ability to quickly jump to specific fields, and more.

Mailbox Header Editor

Beginning with Outlook 2010, the mailbox view (such as the inbox, task lists, contact lists, etc.) contains a very rich set of column names and item descriptions. For each column, Microsoft defined specific names for all of the potential states of a selected list item. In the inbox, for example, a column called icon contains (aptly enough) icons to visually represent the state of a message (read, unread, forwarded, replied to, etc.). While Microsoft is to be commended for going through each of these columns and items and giving them meaningful names, many tend to be more verbose than necessary (such as "message forwarded read" instead of just "forwarded"). The Outlook Enhance app provides an easy way to edit what you hear when a particular combination of column and list item is encountered.
The Mailbox Header Editor dialog (Control-Alt-H by default, Outlook 2010 only) contains the following controls:

• Columns (C) -- List Box -- Contains many of the available list view columns use to separate the information about a mailbox item (such as subject, from, date, etc.).
• Values for (V) -- List Box -- Contains many of the possible values for the selected column (such as yes and no in the attachment column to indicate the presence or absence of an attachment).
• Column Header Name (N) -- Combo Box -- Contains three choices:
• Original - Speak the original name that Microsoft defined for the column header (such as "Icon" for the column that indicates the status of a message).
• None - Do not speak anything for the column header name.
• Custom - Speak a custom string instead of the original name (such as "Status" for the column that indicates the status of a message).
• Column Value (V) -- Combo Box -- Contains three choices:
• Original - Speak the original name that Microsoft defined for the list item value (such as "yes" for the "Attachment" column when the selected list item contains an attachment).
• None - Do not speak anything as the value for the selected column when a list item is selected.
• Custom - Speak a custom string instead of the original name (such as "attachment" for the "Attachment" column when the selected list item contains an attachment).
• Save (S) -- Button -- Saves any changes made to the mailbox headers.
• Cancel -- Button -- Closes the dialog without saving changes.

Using Microsoft's definitions, when you select a message that you've forwarded to a friend or colleague, amongst other information you would hear, "Icon, Message Forwarded Read." To change that information to something more pleasant to hear, do the following:

1. From the columns list view, select the icon column.
2. From the values for list view, select "message forwarded read."
3. Tab to the column name combo box, and select none, meaning that no column name will be spoken for the "icon" column in the mailbox list view.
4. Tab again to the column value combo box, and select custom.
5. Tab once to the custom value edit box, and type in "red" (correctly misspelled to account for pronunciation). "Red" is the value that you'll hear when you encounter a mailbox list item whose icon column status matches Microsoft's label of "message forwarded read."

Now, when you select a message that you've forwarded to a friend or colleague, instead of hearing, "Icon, Message Forwarded Read," you'll instead hear, "Forwarded." GW Micro has taken the time to modify many of the default labels for both columns, and potential values. You can use the Mailbox Header Editor to further refine Outlook column information. If you decided that you did want to hear the Icon column name along with your own custom value, you could set it to original (and hear "Icon, forwarded"). Alternatively, you could set column name to to custom, and change the value to something like "status" to hear "status forwarded". If you wanted to hear, "ye old status, forward ho," every time you encountered a forwarded message, you could do it with the Mailbox Header Editor.

Contact Details

When reviewing the details of a contact, you can open the Contact Details dialog (Control-Alt-C by default) to get a quicker way to review and modify contact information. The Contact Details dialog contains a details list view (presenting all available fields, whether empty, or containing data), along with four buttons:

• Check XYZ (C) - Activates the Outlook contact window's "Check" feature, which allows you to modify information relevant to the selected field. The value of this button will change depending on the name of the selected detail. For example, when Full Name is selected in the Details list view, the button label will be Check Full Name.
• Select Label (S) - Activates the Outlook contact window's label selection menu for the selected field. You can use this feature to change, for example, "Business" to "Mobile" for a phone entry. This button will only be enabled for those fields who have labels that can be modified.
• Edit Value (E) - Puts focus on the selected field, providing a quick way to edit field data without having to spend an unnecessary amount of time tabbing around the original contact window.
• Close - Closes the contact details dialog.

Message Attachments

When reviewing an open message containing attachments, you can quickly access attachment details by pressing the Outlook Enhance Attachments dialog with Control-Alt-A (by default). The attachments dialog contains a list of all available attachments, including their size (if available). You can choose to open an attachment simply by selecting it from the attachments list, and pressing enter, or by selecting it from the attachments list, and tabbing to and selecting the Open button. You can save an attachment using the Save As button, and delete an attachment using the Delete button. While Window-Eyes provides access to attachments using Alt-7 twice, the Outlook Enhance attachment dialog provides a more accessible method than Outlook's default attachment control.

Additional Features

• When in Business Card or Card view in Contacts, you can type the first letter of a contact name, and the first selected item will be spoken automatically.
• Opened messages written in HTML format can be launched in Internet Explorer using Alt-0 (available in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 only).
• The rules list view in the Rules and Alerts dialog reads automatically (available in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 only).

Required Addin Components

The following components must be installed in order for the Outlook Enhance Addin to function properly:

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system (version 3.0 Runtime) (x86)

• http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23656
• VSTO 3.0 Runtime Direct Download (English)

Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime

• http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35594
• Visual Studio 2010 Tools Direct Download (English)

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer)

• http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718
• .NET Framewor 4 Direct Download (English)

Supported Languages: English, Dutch, German, Korean, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Arabic

Minimum Version: Window-Eyes 7.0

Release Date: 6/15/2011

Last Update: 2/22/2013

On 1/10/2013, corange wrote:

This app makes HTML formatted emails especially, easier to read.

On 7/22/2011, vbeckley wrote:

This app is great! It adds some very nice functionality to Outlook. If you use Outlook regularly, you must check it out.