Zoot and Microsoft® Outlook®
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Zoot offers a faster, more flexible way to manage Outlook data. If you're having trouble managing high volume information streams arriving from various sources (e-mail, Web, newsgroups, RSS, etc.), Zoot can help. Zoot synchronizes with any Outlook folder type (Tasks, Contacts, Notes, Mail, etc.). You decide which Outlook folders you want to manage with Zoot and synchronize only those folders. Read on and learn why you'll love Zooting your Outlook data.


An Entire Database for Every Outlook Folder
For every Outlook folder you have, Zoot gives you an entire database full of folders. Every Zoot folder represents a different way of looking at your Outlook items. For example, click on the New Entries folder to view items created in the last couple of days, or click on the Recent Entries folder to view items created in the last 30 days. Click on the Hot List folder to view items you've flagged. These are examples of some of Zoot's built-in Smart Folders, but you can create your own Smart Folders to view items grouped by every imaginable set of criteria. While Outlook does let you create multiple folders, you have to make copies of an item in order to see it in multiple folders. And Outlook's Search Folders only work for Mail items, while Zoot Smart Folders work on all item types (Tasks, Contacts, Notes, Journal Items, etc.).


Fast Searches
Searching for items in Outlook can be painfully slow. This is especially true when searching e-mail messages. Zoot searches are lightening fast and can be automated using Smart Folders. Zoot Smart Folders are much more powerful than the Search Folders in Outlook.


More About Smart Folders
If you've tried Outlook's Search Folders and like the way they operate, wait until you get a look at Zoot Smart Folders. They let you automate information processing tasks by attaching sophisticated rules and actions to your folders. Rules enable a folder to watch for items that match criteria you set up in advance. When a folder picks up a matching item, folder actions can process the item. Folder actions can change item properties (color, type, status, priority, etc.), set dates and reminders, delete items, assign items to folders, copy or move items to another database, and much more. It's like having an army of worker bees at your disposal.

Zoot Smart Folders are more powerful than Outlook Search Folders:

·Zoot Smart Folders can work with any item type (Tasks, Contacts, Notes, etc). Outlook Search Folders work only with Mail items. A Smart Folder can even pull in mixed item types, for instance, all items created in the last 30 days.  
 
·Zoot Smart Folders offer more ways to define the items you want to work with.  
 
·Zoot Smart Folders can perform actions on the items collected in order to automate information processing tasks.  
 
·Zoot Smart Folders work on the actual items in your database, whereas Outlook's Search Folders create virtual items (pointers) to the actual items.  


Here are a just a few examples of the things you can do with Zoot Smart Folders:

·Create an Overdue Tasks folder to automatically collect overdue tasks, then set their priority level to high and change their due date to tomorrow 8:00am.  
 
·Create Reschedule folders that let you quickly change an item's due date to some relative date in the future. You might have folders to change the due date to tomorrow, in two days, next monday, a week from today, etc. Instead of typing in the due date, you simple assign the task to the desired folder with a click of the mouse.  
 
·Move incoming mail (newsletters, newsgroup messages, RSS feeds, etc.) to a dedicated database. Smart Folders in that database could then further process the incoming items, assigning them to the appropriate folders, etc.  
 
·Automatically color code client contacts based on how new they are (7 days, 14 days, 30 days, etc.).  


Multi-folder Searches
Searching across multiple folders in Outlook can be tedious and slow. Zoot assumes you want to include all folders in your search by default. And searching multiple folders is just as fast as searching a single folder. You can combine Contacts, Appointments, Tasks and Mail into one database and use Zoot's Quick Query to find related items fast.


Extended Data Entry in Columns
Data entry in columns is limited in Outlook. In many cases fields you add to a view cannot be edited at all unless you double-click to open the item in a detached window. Zoot lets you edit any field directly in the Item Grid. Here are a few examples of how data entry differs between Zoot and Outlook:

·Add a Categories column to a view in Zoot and when you click the column you get a drop down list of categories to choose from. In Outlook you must tediously type in each category entry using the keyboard or call up a pop-up window and select your categories there.  
 
·Zoot lets you create your own custom drop down lists. For example, if you add a Company column to a view in Zoot, you can create a custom drop down list of frequently used companies, so you don't have to type in the same company names over and over again.  
 
·Some item properties cannot be edited in a column at all in Outlook. For instance, the Read/Unread property of a Mail item cannot be edited in a column in Outlook, while Zoot gives you the ability to toggle this property with a single mouse click.  
 
·Zoot lets add folders to a view as a column, so you can assign an item to a folder with a single mouse click. Outlook won't even let you assign an item to more than one folder, let alone create a folder column. It's hard to describe how useful folder columns can be; you really have to see for yourself.  


Properties Extend to All Item Types
In Outlook, certain item properties apply only to certain item types. For instance, the <Priority> property applies only to Task items. In Zoot, all item types have a <Priority> property, so, for example, you can set a Journal item or an appointment item to High priority if you want. This is true of all Outlook properties in Zoot, for instance, all items have <Status>, <Start Date>, <Due Date>, <Read/Unread>, <% Complete>, <Sensitivity> and <Color> properties.


Set Reminders and Recurrence for Any Item Type
You can set a reminder for any item type in Zoot, not just Task items, andnd you can make any item type a recurring item.


Easier Item Editing
In Outlook you have to double-click on an item to open it in a detached item editor window in order to add notes to the item. Zoot lets you add notes to items directly in the preview pane. And to edit the text of an e-mail message in Outlook, you'll have to jump through even more hoops, because the e-mail message is read-only. Zoot lets you add notes to e-mail messages directly in the preview pane, no fuss at all.


Link E-mail Replies to the Original Message
When you reply to an e-mail in Zoot, an Outlook reply message is created and automatically linked to the original e-mail in Zoot. This is useful if you later review an e-mail and need to see the contents of your reply message. Your reply is always just a mouse-click away.


Archive Outlook Data
Once you synchronize Outlook and Zoot, you can delete messages in Outlook and reduce the size of your Outlook .PST file. Since Zoot stores items in multiple databases, you don't have to worry about a multi-gigabyte .PST file.


Save File Attachments to Disk
When you synchronize Outlook and Zoot, any file attachments are automatically saved to disk and linked to the corresponding Zoot Mail item, so you won't lose your file attachments if you delete Mail messages in Outlook.


Advanced Information Processing
In addition to advanced versions of familiar Outlook features like filters, views and advanced queries, etc., Zoot offers numerous other advanced information processing features Outlook does not offer. Here are just a few:

·Zoot's Web Tracking feature watches your browser and logs all of the sites you visit in a dedicated Web database (you can turn off this feature if you wish).  
 
·The Zooter lets you send information from any Windows application directly to the Zoot database of your choice. You can even send information directly to a new Outlook item if you choose.  
 
·The Zooter lets you insert information from a Zoot database directly into the active document of the application you're working in. No need to copy and paste back and forth between apps.  
 
·Zoot offers a Clipboard feature which lets you create database entries with any text you copy to the clipboard.  
 
·Zoot lets you clean up your databases easily with global find and replace, text stripping, duplicate removal and other maintenance functions.  


Finally, and at the risk of beating a dead horse, the benefit of having an entire database full of Smart Folders in which to process your Outlook data cannot be overstated. It can be difficult to get one's mind around the exponential increase in power and flexibility this design offers over Outlook's single folder design. And it is not merely the ability to organize items in multiple folders that should be considered, but the cumulative power of all those Smart Folders working on your behalf.

Best of all, you don't have to switch from Outlook to Zoot, you can use both programs simultaneously and take advantage of the relative strengths of each!