In May 2009, Microsoft Office Labs have launched a very cool add-in for Outlook, called Forgotten Attachment Detector, which reminds you when you have forgotten to attach a file to your e-mail. Like many of my colleagues, I have issues with forgetting to attach files to e-mail messages. Therefore, I was pretty excited to hear about this tool. Problem was, the tool worked only on Windows Vista and Windows 7. After plenty of requests made by people all over the world, this add-on has been updated to work on Windows XP too. Now the whole corporate world can use it. In this article I will tell you where to find this tool, what else you need to install to make it work and how to configure it and use it.

What To Download & Install

For such a little tool, Forgotten Attachment Detector has plenty of dependencies. Prior to installing it, you need to download and install the following:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 - if you are on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, chances are you don't need to install this. However, if you are on Windows XP and in a corporate network, chances are very high that this is not already installed on your computer and you need to download and install it.
• Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system (version 3.0 Runtime) - this is a must for all version of Windows.

When you install this tool, make sure your Microsoft Outlook 2007 is closed.

How To Use Forgotten Attachment Detector

After you install it, you will see a small button similar to the one below in the Microsoft Outlook 2007 toolbar. If this doesn't show up, it means the add-in was not installed or loaded properly. In case of issues, ask for help on the Forgotten Attachment Detector Discussions forum.

If you click on the button, you will see the configuration window. On the upper side you have the list of primary words which the tool will be looking for when checking if you forgot to attach a file or not. You can edit this list by using the Add, Edit and Delete button. The process is very easy.

Below it, you will have the list of secondary keywords and contexts.

By default, this plugin is configured to work for e-mails in English. To make it work for your own language, you can add the translation of the default keywords to the lists of primary and secondary keywords. By adding just a few words, I've made it work even for Romanian.

When done configuring the plugin, click on OK.

Now you start typing e-mails as usual. When you forget to add an attachment, after you press the Send button, you will receive a warning like the one below.

Now you can go back to your e-mail and attach the forgotten file.

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