Electronic mail has become the means by which the business world communicates.  Today, we’re overwhelmed by e-mail.  One reason is the way that e-mail is used to carry on discussions among a group of people.  Have you ever opened your Inbox only to find a conversation of a dozen messages on a single topic?  Most of these messages are just earlier parts of the same conversation and are included verbatim in later messages.

Would you like a way to quickly filter through these many messages, weeding out all those messages that are contained within later reply messages?  In this way, you could take those dozen messages and narrow them down into one or two that contain the whole conversation.  You can imagine the savings in time.

Enter DupeDuster.  DupeDuster works with Microsoft Outlook 2000/XP to review messages that you select.  It will compare the text of each selected message.  If it finds that a message has been entirely included in a later message, it will mark that message as “completed.”  If you drag the Flag Status field into your Microsoft Outlook Inbox folder view, these duplicate messages will be marked with a gray flag. 

Here’s all you have to do.

Ÿ        Select two or more messages in your Microsoft Outlook Inbox (or any Inbox folder containing electronic mail).

Ÿ        Launch DupeDuster.

Ÿ        Messages that are duplicated entirely in later messages will have the flag status marked Complete (gray flag).

Ÿ        You may choose whether to delete or ignore these duplicate messages.

DupeDuster isn’t just limited to screening your Inbox.  For example, you can use it to screen your Sent Items folder, so that you don't have to save unnecessary messages.

DupeDuster has two known limitations.  First, DupeDuster doesn’t compare attachments.  Usually, attachments are not included in replies to messages.  Thus, it’s possible that an attachment will be included in the first message in a conversation, and this message (but not the attachments) will be duplicated in later messages.  DupeDuster will flag these messages as duplicates.  Don’t delete them until you’ve saved any necessary attachments.

Second, while DupeDuster will find duplicate messages even if they’re in different formats (HTML, rich text, plain text), some plain-text Internet e-mail programs will prefix each line of an earlier message with a character such as “>.”  DupeDuster won’t recognize these as duplicates.

If you receive a lot of electronic mail, DupeDuster can help keep the size of your Inbox down, and save you time that would be spent manually comparing messages and figuring out which required a response.

DupeDuster requires the following:

• Microsoft Outlook, versions 2000 or XP.  (Not for use with Outlook Express, or Outlook 97/98.)
• Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/XP.
• Visual Basic 6 runtime (MSVBVM60.DLL).
• The desire to save time and work more efficiently.

Press here to download DupeDuster for Microsoft Outlook 2000/XP.

DupeDuster is shareware.  The evaluation version is fully functional but includes a registration reminder and delay.  To remove this reminder and delay (after all, you want to save time...), please register.  Registration is $19.95.

Press here to register DupeDuster using your major credit card.  You will receive a registration code by electronic mail.  (Allow 1-2 business days for processing.)

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Copyright © 1997-2002, Walter E. Heindl, Ivitar Software