The Task Organizer lets you change the due date on tasks, manage and view all tasks, and when the sidebar is closed, it will pop up reminders when you have overdue items.

In the new sidebar, you can also view the status of your projects, pin the most important projects for quick access, edit and create new tasks right in the sidebar and filter tasks by date, category, priority or other options.

The sidebar features a “Project” tab as well which you can switch to in order to gain access to your project list and its associated tasks, files and contacts. Here, you can add free-form notes to projects, move and rename projects and quickly jump from this tab directly to the associated email folder for that particular projects.

As always, ClearContext still helps with filtering your barrage of incoming email with its automatic filing and organizational features, including the great option to automatically file entire email threads from the inbox. it also lets you quickly turn emails into appointments or tasks, automatically reminds you to follow up on sent email you need a reply on, offers Do Not Disturb and Autosign features and a lot more.

Registered v5 customers can download v5.1 here. New customers can purchase v5 here.  if you’re using the older version of ClearContext (Pro v4), you can purchase an upgrade to v5 here.

The cool thing about this add-in, which installs itself as new tab on Ribbon-enabled versions of Word and PowerPoint, is that it lets you download and test watermarked images in your documents before buying. You can move them around and even crop them to see how they look.

Once you have an image you like, purchasing can be done right from within your document. Same goes for searches, buying credits, and signing in and out of your Veer account.

The Veer Images add-in is a free download available here for Windows XP, Visa, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 computers.

(via The Microsoft Office Blog)

Based on user feedback, the hint system in Ribbon Hero has been revamped with updated wording that helps you find features faster. Hint images have been improved as well.

Finally, you can now comment on Facebook posts directly from the Ribbon Hero add-in and you’ll be notified when you earn achievements whether or not you’re logged into Facebook. There are more sound effects when this happens, too.

If you’ve never played Ribbon Hero (or challenged your friends), you can download and install the add-in now from here. It’s a lot more fun learning Office this way than having to page through some stuffy old manual, anyway. Even if you’re already comfortable with Office software, you can upgrade your skills by learning new, more advanced features with Ribbon Hero.

Curious as to how this whole “make Office a game” thing came about? Check out this behind-the-scenes look at the software posted here on Ch. 10  in January.

In addition to the extra storage, MediaSmart owners can watch the recorded shows on either a PC, Mac or TV by way of the Home Server’s remote streaming option.   

Some of the more recent add-ons integrate social networks into your inbox for a bit of social CRM while others focus on more advanced search and organizational tools.

Below are some of the more recent ones I’ve come across.

(One caveat: I haven’t used all of these in the list below myself. However, the ones I have used in the past – Lookeen, Xobni, and ClearContext – all worked well.)

NEO Pro 4.1 (www.emailorganizer.com) - Automatically manages your inbox and catalogs all email messages using virtual folder structure to significantly reduce email overload and boost overall productivity – with no manual upkeep, clicking, or dragging to folders.

Lookeen (www.lookeen.net) - Provides a fast search for all things in Outlook.

Xobni (www.xobni.com) - Helps find emails, conversations, contact info & attachments faster while integrating social networks and email analytics features.

ClearContext Professional (www.clearcontext.com) - Keeps messages organized by suggesting the right folders to instantly file messages and conversations with one-click.

Chilibase for Outlook (www.chilibase.net) - Easily search and track all contacts and conversation threads.

RedCritter (www.redcritter.com) - Plugs documents, tweets, messages, maps and more — all related to the message you are currently viewing — into Outlook.

SimpyFile (www.techhit.com) - Turns filing Outlook messages into a one-click action and suggesting the correct target folder.

Auto-Mate (www.pergenex.com) - Applies flexible rules to your Outlook folders periodically, automatically organizing your mail in the manner of a personal assistant.

Advanced Folders Watch (http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/folders_watch/) - Monitors new mail messages and posts appearing in Microsoft Outook folders and public folders on Microsoft Exchange Server.

E-mail Follow-Up (www.mapilab.com/outlook/email_followup/) - Reminds you if an email you sent did not receive a reply after a certain time, thus requiring a follow-up email.

The gwabbit plugin automatically identifies a user’s contact info in the body of an email and then, with a click of a button, it can transform that text into an Outlook contact. It’s incredibly fast and a HUGE timesaver.

Now gwabbit has introduced a companion to their Outlook plugin, with a new Contact Manager designed for BlackBerry users. This version of gwabbit does pretty much the same thing as its counterpart – it automatically searches for signatures in your emails and lets you add them to your BlackBerry address book with just one click. And if your BlackBerry is being synced back to Outlook, as most BlackBerry devices in a corporate environment are, those new contacts are synced as well.

Gwabbit for Outlook is available as a one-time download for $19.95 (free trial available) and the new BlackBerry version will be available by month-end via an annual subscription of $9.95.

Since the tool was originally built back in 1999, it may look a little…uhhh…retro by modern standards, but don’t let the appearance fool you – this may easily be the most useful Outlook plugin you’ve installed in a long time.

Of course, anyone choosing to use the tool must do so at their own risk because – be warned! – it does delete email. That’s its purpose. For that reason alone, the legal department at Microsoft was hesitant about it being released to the public.

Note that Microsoft does not support the tool nor can they be held responsible for what it does.

That said, you can get the Microsoft Outlook Thread Compressor for free from here: http://threadcompressor.co.uk/default.aspx. You’ll find installation instructions and more information on that site, too.

SlideShare’s ribbon is a great example of how Software plus Services (S+S) can work. It shows how the web can enhance your current software, without having to move an entire application to the web to do so. Instead, the web becomes a component of the software. With the new SlideShare ribbon for example, accessing the social network built around PowerPoint files is now something that can be seamlessly integrated into the desktop app for a true S+S experience.

The SlideShare Ribbon (.exe) works with PowerPoint 2007, Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. You can see a video of it in action here.

The online service YouSendIt is a favorite for sending large files over the internet. The service offers three versions: a free personal account that allows sending of files up to 2 GB, plus Business and Corporate accounts that offer additional file security, tracking, and deployment tools.

Today, YouSendIt offers a variety of plugins that integrate with the applications you use everyday, including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office. With these plugins installed, you can seamlessly send files from within the program itself, without having to go online and browse to the yousendit.com web site.

The Outlook plugin has been around for awhile now, having made its debut back in March 2008. Since then, the plugin has been downloaded 261,209 times. IT admins love the plugin because it deploys easily, reduces strain on email servers, and users tend to adopt it right away with little training required.

The Outlook plugin offers a resumable upload feature that handles network interruptions – so even if you’re on a flaky Wi-Fi connection, a timeout won’t mean you have to start all over – your upload will just continue where it left off.

The YouSendIt Microsoft Office plugin is new. This plugin also handles network interruptions while offering 25% faster uploads than the web application. It even lets you add additional files and folders to one upload batch to save you time when you need to send multiple files. The plugin includes all standard YouSendIt features like password protection, certified delivery, and file expiration control, too.

YouSendIt AddIn In Office 2007

Once installed, the plugin provides a new option from the “Send” menu of Microsoft Office - “Send by YouSendIt.”

Registered YouSendIt users can download this plugin for free from here.

Although some of the functions in Taglocity can already be done with crafty use of Outlook’s rules and views - not to mention Outlook 2007’s labels -the plugin aims to make that process easier. This is especially true for the conversation threading feature which displays emails in chronological order with all the related conversations grouped together. Some Outlook 2007 users won’t see the need for this addition, but for users of Outlook 2003, this plugin delivers some great additional features. You can check it out for yourself here.

The Add-In Cleanup Tool helps you clean and uninstall up whichever add-ins you need to get rid of. It will even remove them from the registry, too, after first doing a backup. The tool is installed via Remote Desktop by connecting to your WHS and putting the file ‘addincleanup.exe’ into the C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server folder. You can then choose to add the shortcut to your desktop, if desired. The tool is a free download available from here (zip file).  (via We Got Served)

As it turns out, there is a tool that does just that. I recently came across a review of it over on gHacks. The tool is an Excel plugin called Autobackup. With Autobackup installed, you can specify how often you want your spreadsheet backed up, how many copies it should save, and how long those copies should be saved (in days). Installation is simple – just got to Tools –> Add-ins and browse for the Autobackup file. Autobackup is available as a free download from here. An English and Portuguese version are available.

This latest addin called LiveWeb doesn’t appear to be new exactly, but it was new to me. LiveWeb works with any version of PowerPoint from 97 on up to allow you to open a web browser within the presentation itself as opposed to launching an external application (like IE). Its browser can display the real web in PowerPoint including PDFs, java, and VRML. You can download LiveWeb for free from here.

What’s really interesting about KallOut is that it essentially brings the power of the web into traditional Microsoft Office software. One of the perks of using online office suites is that, by their very nature, they’re connected to the real-time information of the web. So for example, if you needed to pull up a stock quote in a spreadsheet, it was possible. However, for many people, especially those using Office software in a traditional business environment, the web office suites are just not robust enough, rich enough, or powerful enough for the tasks at hand. But with a simple add-in like KallOut, you no longer have to choose between easy access to the live web or feature-rich software – you can have both.

Here are some examples of Kallout in use:

• Add-ins 
  • The Article Authoring Add-in for Word 2007 enables authors and editors to open and save Microsoft Office Word files in the National Library of Medicine's NLM XML format, a file format that is used in the publishing and archiving of scientific and technical articles. It also enables additional metadata to be captured at the authoring stage and enables semantic information to be preserved through the publishing process, which is essential for enabling search and semantic analysis once the articles are archived at information repositories. The add-in also aims at simplifying the authoring, submission, and interaction process between authors and journals.
  • The Creative Commons Add-in for Office 2007 is an add-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, and Office Excel 2007 that enables individuals to embed a Creative Commons license directly into their Microsoft Office documents. The add-in allows an author of a Microsoft Office document to choose a Creative Commons license from those available on the Creative Commons Web site (by using the Creative Commons Web service). The embedded license links directly to its online representation on the Creative Commons Web site while a machine-readable representation is stored in the Office Open XML document. By using Creative Commons licenses, you can express your intentions regarding how others may use your work.
  • The Microsoft Math Add-in enhances Microsoft Office Word 2007 with computational and graphing capabilities. With the add-in, you can perform the following: plot a function, equation, or inequality; solve an equation or inequality; calculate a numerical result, and simplify an algebraic expression.
• The Microsoft e-Journal Service: The Microsoft eJournal Service will provide a hosted, full-service solution to support scholarly societies, small publishers, and medium-sized publishers in the production of online-only journals. It is designed to simplify the self-publishing of workshop and conference proceedings and smaller journals, as well as online collaboration between authors. The service supports managing the submission and review of articles in any format, and the deposit of final articles in information repositories by using the SWORD protocol. An alpha version, available now, is hosted via Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007—allowing organizations to utilize this functionality without provisioning or maintaining any infrastructure.
• Research Output Repository Platform: This platform for building repositories takes advantage of the strengths of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, the Microsoft Entity Framework, and the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. The technology, to be available through a free download, provides services that are based on open community protocols (such as the Open Archives Initiative–Object Reuse and Exchange [OAI-ORE], SWORD, and so on), which enables interoperability and integration with other tools and services. An included toolkit and code samples will allow developers to present data in original ways, demonstrating, for example, the relationships between a published paper, authors, research data, associated lectures, presentation slides, or PDFs. Currently in a limited alpha release, an open beta version will be available later in 2008. (Links: Community Forum, sample code).
• The Research Information Centre: In close partnership with the British Library, this collaborative workspace will be hosted via Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and will allow researchers to collaborate throughout the entire research project workflow, from seeking research funding to searching and collecting information, as well as managing data, papers and other research objects throughout the research process.

Have you ever heard of Microsoft Math? It’s a downloadable product for students which features a graphing calculator, formula & equations library, triangle solver, unit conversion tool, and more. Math is pretty affordable at only $14.95 (U.S.), but that’s not the free Math download I’m referring to in this blog post’s title. The free download I’m talking about is a Microsoft Math add-in for Word 2007 users. This add-in lets Word handle things that you may have thought only Excel was capable of doing. With the Math add-in, for example, you can create graphs, perform calculations, and solve for variables – and all from within Word. You can even plot elements in 2-D and 3-D. This is great for those who are writing research papers on mathematical subjects, for teachers who are creating study guides for students, as well as anyone else who needs to do some math in Word. But you won’t find this free add-in on the Microsoft Math homepage, though – you’ll need to go straight to this page on the Microsoft Download Center site instead.

You may remember some of our earlier coverage of ClearContext (click here for 7 Outlook Tips). Now the company is rebranding their product naming conventions a bit along with the launch of several new features. The previous professional (paid) version of the software was called ClearContext IMS v4. Now, it's a much more understandable "ClearContext Professional." Registered users of IMS can upgrade and get access to the new features for free.

For everyone else, ClearContext Personal edition is offering some great tools which include the ability to see attachments and contacts from emails in each folder, the ability to save, sort, and forward those attachments, the ability to create distribution lists, meeting requests, etc. from those contacts, and more.

Back when I was a regular ClearContext user at my I.T. job, one of my favorite features were the buttons that let me instantly file either individual emails or entire conversations with one click. Once I had everything set up properly, email came in already categorized, so I wouldn't even need to tell it what folder it belonged in. Of course, for the times I did need to categorize the email, it was only a matter of typing the first letter of the folder's name and hitting "Enter" to assign the category. (Love keyboard shortcuts!)

However, it looks like the next version of ClearContext Personal is offering a feature that can even trump that - the ability to explore and preview your attachments within Outlook just like you were browsing a folder on your desktop. (You have to see the screenshot). That looks extremely useful.

Other ClearContext Personal features include threaded conversations, highlighting of the most important messages in your inbox, and "Notifications Managers" that automatically move what we fondly refer to as "bacn" out of your inbox. (What's bacn? click here to find out. Short answer is "email you want, but not right now").

The new features should certainly help heavy Outlook users get a better reign on their inboxes if they can take a break from their email long enough to install and configure the add-in!

• Work well with my Mac
  Yes, Windows Home Server works with a Mac. In fact, you can set your Apple Backup or Time Machine to save to your WHS. You can even use Windows Home Server to expand the partition on your Mac.
  
• Allow me access when I am on the road (away from home) to add new torrents, see status, etc.
  Without a doubt, one of the best features of Windows Home Server. Not only can you access it away from your home (with <your name>.homeserver.com), you can wake up other computers on your network and remote into those.
  
• Work with my Airport Extreme with a HD attached [& AppleTV].
  I don't know about that (I don't have one), but it works with all the Media Center Extenders, including HP's MediaSmart LCD HDTVs.
  
• Can also be used with a (Xbox) 360 if the ATV is a make or break.
  Yes, an Xbox 360 is a Media Center Extender. You can connect to the photo, video, or music content on your WHS through your Xbox 360.
  
• Expandable via drive bays or USB 2.0.
  Windows Home Servers are built for easy drive access, many of the manufactured models have drawers and easy install systems for drive expansion. Once connected, WHS will prompt you to add the drive to the total storage. If you use redundancy (which is a good idea), WHS will automatically keep two copies of your data on different drives. You can also use external USB drives if you like, even USB thumbdrives can be added as storage.
  
• Not be a power pig.
  Home Servers are designed for low power consumption. On top of what the manufacturer has done, you have all the standard Windows power options. WHS is designed headless (no monitor needed), and because you can wake your home machines remotely and put them to sleep when you're done, WHS saves power beyond itself. 
  
• Price is not really a major object, but of course good value is preferred.
  I think the price is something that will surprise people, and there are annoucements coming later in the year from partners on that. For those on a budget, you can build your own. A 3.4ghz Pentium 4 CPU & motherboard combo is only $119 right now. You can customize your WHS for low noise, low power consumption, or massive drive space. It can be the ugly beige box in your garage or a tricked out case mod in your living room.
  
• Must be quick and easy to add and delete torrents, as I don't have a lot of time to muck around.
  No problem. There is already a Windows Home Server add-in for uTorrent. It snaps right in to the Home Server console which is available from any machine on your Home Server network or through the Internet.

Of course, Windows Home Server does much more than this. After using one at my house for several months, I'd even say it qualifies as a life-changing NAS.

You might want to give Diskeeper a try. Diskeeper will automatically manage the defragging on your hard drives, which means better performance and reliability, faster boot and load times, faster anti-virus scans, and faster back-up times. You can download a 45-day trial version of Diskeeper 2007, but keep your eye on Diskeeper 2008 -- coming Q4 -- which will include true add-in support, appearing as a button on your WHS Console.

Here's a screenshot of what Diskeeper 2008 will look like.