Microsoft bundled various tools in the Office suite, including a component to manage your email account, namely Outlook. Dedicated to this component, Bells & Whistles for Outlook comes with an extra set of features to automate different repetitive tasks, and increase efficiency when managing multiple emails.

Needless to say that Microsoft Office needs to be installed on your computer, since Outlook is directly targeted. The set of new features is found under a dedicated menu in the ribbon bar. From there you can access different options to configure general behavior, handle notes, search, edit email templates, print, and even export configuration profiles.

One advantage in particular is the addition of email templates, which reduces your effort when having to deal with standard text forms on a regular basis. The template manager shows items in an organized table, while the editor itself is fitted with all font control options, possibility to align text, insert links and pictures, specify email format, include additional parameters, specify hotkey trigger, and whether to fill in address fields with custom entries.

The metrics tool makes it possible to have reports automatically generated. You can configure it to target only specific folders in your inbox, with options to include subfolders as well. Reports are built on a specific date range, with options to include multiple accounts, and filter according to daily traffic, conversation stats, reply stats, and word count.

Just to make it easier to filter emails, the application can help attach custom notes. This makes it easier to identify items based on custom text strings. Moreover, there’s the possibility to configure alerts for various actions, such as attachments bigger than a specific size, when words are encountered in a message, or as a reminder to send replies.

In conclusion, Bells & Whistles for Outlook brings about a powerful set of improvements to Microsoft Outlook. Various automated processes can be configured, including alerts and reminders based on different triggers.